Scientists have used human challenge trials for decades to learn more about diseases such as malaria, flu, typhoid and cholera, and to develop treatments and vaccines against them. Participants in the UK COVID-19 challenge trial will be allowed to go home after the initial 14 days only if "extensive testing" shows they are not infectious, said Imperial's Chris Chiu, the trial's chief investigator. Campaigners from a group called 1Day Sooner, which has been lobbying governments around the world to conduct human challenge trials with the novel coronavirus, welcomed the UK's move, saying it would accelerate research into COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Further trials using the challenge models could then be conducted in the months and years ahead to establish which vaccines and treatments work best, he said. "Human challenge trials ... have been used to study infections ... ranging from the common cold viruses to malaria," he said.

Source: bd News24 February 17, 2021 15:00 UTC