• Question: Is there a cure to the coronavirus and are animals linked to it?

    Asked by Bethany is @home! on 15 May 2020.
    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 15 May 2020:

      H Bethany,

      No cure as yet – but hopefully we’ll have a vaccine at some stage.
      Currently scientists think the disease is a zoonosis, that is a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals – and the most likely animals in this case are bats.

    • Photo: Marcello Valente

      Marcello Valente answered on 15 May 2020:

      Dear Bethany,
      at the moment we have got good results with previous anti-virus drugs but the main priority is developing a vaccine.
      There are also a lot of proofs and publications that this virus is linked to mammals.

    • Photo: Simon Spichak

      Simon Spichak answered on 15 May 2020:

      There is no cure yet, but scientists are working very hard to figure it out! Since the virus is made up of genetic material inside of a lipid coat, some strategies involve targetting parts of this coat to disable the virus. One exciting strategy uses small proteins in the llama, called antibodies, that target parts of this coat: https://www.sciencealert.com/llama-blood-could-play-a-role-in-helping-people-fight-off-coronavirus-infections. Some studies are also looking to see if people who have had coronavirus have some sort of immune response that can be transferred to other people to neutralize the virus. Plenty of scientists are hard at work, taking different kinds of approaches to fight this virus (https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-vaccine-search-how-were-preparing-to-make-enough-for-the-whole-world-137970). In terms of animals, the evidence suggests that SARS-COV2 passed from bats to pangolins to humans (https://www.sciencealert.com/more-evidence-suggests-pangolins-may-have-passed-coronavirus-from-bats-to-humans). Now transmission to a human is rare and requires that the virus made some mistakes when copying itself, and these mistakes just so happened to allow it the ability to infect humans.

    • Photo: Achim Schmalenberger

      Achim Schmalenberger answered on 15 May 2020:

      Dear Bethany,
      A cure is something that is quite difficult when it comes to viral diseases. Often we rely on our own immune system to cure us from the virus and this is usually also the case with the common flu and hepatitis A. Some viral diseases are staying around like the herpes virus. At the moment, scientists are still finding out whether the exposure to SARS-Cov-2 (this is the actual name of the virus) will create immunity in us that is good enough to cure us and to keep us immune from future infections. For instance, the flu virus is mutating quickly so that if you had it in one year, you could get infected with the next strain in the following year if it mutated enough to be different so that our immune system is not prepared against it.
      A cure against SARS-CoV-2 is most likely a vaccine that provides our immune system with a target against that we can develop antibodies so that when we are exposed to the virus, we can quickly and effectively attack it.
      Animals are used often in studies to test vaccines and in some cases animals are used to make the vaccine. However, it is unlikely that we can extract a component from animals that can cure us from SARS-CoV-2. However, there are reports of substances of antiviral quality that are in animals (e.g. lamas). Therefore, there could be a link to supportive treatment linked to animals in the future.

    • Photo: Aisling Ryan

      Aisling Ryan answered on 15 May 2020:

      Hi Bethany!
      When a new disease is discovered lots of different scientists need to come together to make a treatment. One team of scientists will decide on a target, another team could design a drug, another team could make the drug and another team could test it- no one scientist can do all of these jobs!
      When the new disease is infectious (can be passed from one person to another) finding a treatment becomes more urgent. Infectious diseases involve a pathogen (e.g. bacteria or virus) that does not usually live in our body but has somehow sneaked in. That pathogen makes itself at home and invites lots of friends to join it, which makes us feel unwell. When we are making a treatment we need to develop a medicine that will kill the pathogen without damaging our body, and this can be tricky! It means we need to find something in the pathogen that doesn’t exist in us. Because bacteria cells are different to human cells they can be easy enough to make a medicine for. Unfortunately viruses are very smart and they actually hide away inside our cells, which makes it very difficult to create a medicine that will reach them and kill them.
      So, long story short, lots of scientists are working very hard to make or find a medicine that will be able to kill the sneaky virus.
      The next best option is to develop a vaccine, which basically gives our immune system the secret method that is required to kill all of the virus. With a vaccine, our body is the medicine (how cool is that!). The only problem is in order to make sure a vaccine or a medicine is safe it has to go through lots and lots of testing, so it takes a long time.
      As frustrating as it is waiting for the amazing scientists to develop a safe cure, we need to be patient and trust that they are doing their best. Some scientists in Oxford and London in the UK, have already developed a vaccine and are now testing it on healthy people to see if it works.
      Remember as well, we have already learnt so much about how to stay safe by social distancing and washing our hands, and that is all because of science!

    • Photo: Dimitar Shterionov

      Dimitar Shterionov answered on 16 May 2020:

      Hi Bethany,

      As far as I am aware, there is no cure. There are several vaccines and other drugs that are being tested, but there needs to be an extensive trial period before any cure is delivered globally.

      The corona virus is a zoonosis virus – one that can be transmitted from animals to humans. But this one did not come directly from bats; we wouldn’t have contracted it directly from bats as it would be incompatible with our bodies. It moved from bats to another animal and mixed with a virus from that animal, now becoming a virus that can affect us. And we got it from that second animal. Scientists say it has migrated from bats to pangolins ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin ) and we contracted it from the pangolins.

      Fingers crossed that soon there will be a vaccine 🙂

    • Photo: Jun Lin

      Jun Lin answered on 16 May 2020: last edited 16 May 2020 7:59 pm

      There is no cure to the covid-19 at the moment. Hopefully a vaccine can be developed as soon as possible. There are proofs of this virus being linked to animals but more investigations are definitely needed to draw a definitive conclusion.