The recent coronavirus crisis has caused many to become desperate to not only protect themselves and the ones they love from the disease, but also to ensure that those they love who have already contracted the virus are healing.
This has been making medical professionals and scientists very nervous and eager to find a cure.
In order to further test and identify components that would make up the cure of coronavirus, 18 lab monkeys were injected with the virus in an effort to find a permanent solution to the Wuhan epidemic.
Source: CNBC
The monkeys, rhesus macaques, were exposed to the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this strain of the disease causes coughing, shortness of breath, fevers and in some cases, organ failure.
A team of scientists from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) has revealed that an experimental vaccine that they have developed, called remdesivir, has proven effective in treating the infected monkeys, as according to Ladbible.
The monkeys were placed under observation for about 6 days. Scientists found that those that were treated with remdesivir showed no signs or symptoms of the infection.
Source: Slate
Unfortunately, the poor monkeys had to be euthanised and necropsied after the observation was over.
“Our results, together with replication inhibition by remdesivir of a wide range of coronavirus in vitro and in vivo, may further indicate utility of remdesivir against the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV emerging from Wuhan, China,” their study concluded.
Let’s hope those poor monkey’s sacrifices are well worth it.
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