Belgian researchers are to conduct an experiment for a new polio vaccine, involving quarantine of participants.
In the parking lot of the university hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, black containers. Like a village, made up of 66 hermetically sealed buildings, with no means of communication to the outside. And for good reason: in these dark boxes, around thirty people will be placed in quarantine, after having received an injection of an experimental vaccine against poliomyelitis into their bodies.
The Belgian media have already baptized the area “Poliopolis” and drawn a parallel with “Loft Story”, a scientific version. For a month, the participants of this study will be able to relax in their individual room, or go to the sports hall of the “village”, or eat in the common dining room. Fed, housed, laundered, and even compensated, the guinea pigs will not have as their only instruction the absolute ban on leaving the containers.
“Perfect place of isolation”
A “necessary isolation to reduce the risk that the vaccine strain can enter the environment through feces for example”, explains Pierre Van Damme, who is leading the experiment, quoted by the newspaper. Het Laatste Nieuws. However, “volunteers can keep in touch with the outside world by phone or social media,” he adds.
Not all participants have yet been recruited; however, the conditions are quite strict. Beyond the necessary medical and psychological characteristics, assessed by the teams, the participants must not have been vaccinated against polio. As such, the Belgians, like the French, will not be able to apply. The Dutch, on the other hand, can claim to be a guinea pig.
According to RTBF, Professor Van Damme fears not finding enough volunteers by May 8. “It’s a perfect place of isolation for a student during an exam session,” he slips with a strong innuendo.
Eradication in progress
This experiment, through an international consortium, is funded by the Bill Gates Foundation. It aims to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis, while stock-outs of existing vaccines are becoming more frequent, auguring shortages around the world.
However, while the number of cases has fallen by more than 99% since 1988, dropping from 350,000 to 74 notified cases in 2015, eradication has not yet been achieved. In several countries (Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, Central Africa), the prevalence of the disease has started to rise again, raising fears of its re-emergence.
“As long as one child remains infected, all the others, in all countries, are at risk of contracting poliomyelitis”, explains the WHO. Failure to eradicate the last strongholds of the disease could result in 200,000 new cases reappearing every year for the next ten years.
Highly contagious infection
Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious viral infection mainly affecting children. The virus is transmitted through contaminated water or food. After multiplying in the intestine, it invades the nervous system. In many cases, the infection remains asymptomatic, but the affected subjects nevertheless excrete the virus in their faeces and can therefore transmit poliomyelitis to others, specifies the WHO on its site.
The initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck and pain in the limbs. In a small number of cases, poliomyelitis leads to paralysis, often permanent. Vaccination is the only means of prevention; there is no cure for the disease.
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