INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL
bodies. The speed of development does not that mean corners have been cut – rather that every individual able work on vaccine development did so, every application for research approval was assessed immediately, rather than sitting on the regulators’ desks for months (as usually happens), and approval applications went straight to the front of the queue of drugs to be approved once the application was ready. Commendably, processes were put in place very early, so that richer countries did not have access to all the vaccines; a programme of support for developing and low-income nations is in place so that people worldwide are vaccinated, with those who cannot afford it supported by the countries that can. Australia is currently supporting Papua New Guinea with vaccinations in response to outbreaks in that country.
Spike protein targeted
Most vaccines are developed to target the spike protein – the part of the virus that attaches to the cells of the body. A vaccinated person produces antibodies to the spike protein, and once the virus enters the human body, the antibodies stick to the spike proteins, blocking the spike protein from attaching to the cell, and thus blocking the infective process. If the virus can’t stick to the cell, it cannot insert its contents there to reproduce. Coronaviruses are viruses that can be very prone both to mutation, and the production of new strains – as we have seen with the UK strain, the South African strain, and the announcement recently of a strain in the USA that is a combination of two highly virulent strains together. While vaccine development must keep up with these developments, it is hoped that
the current vaccines will have some effect against the new variants. Otherwise, coronavirus vaccination may become like the current Influenza vaccine – new vaccines are developed each year depending upon the most prevalent circulating strains. As the vaccine technology has now been developed, further advancements to combat new strains should be more quickly available. Millions of people have been vaccinated already worldwide, with the UK leading the way, and early signs are very promising that protection from the virus occurs, and that side effects occur very rarely. There is hope for a return to normality over the next year, as vaccines roll out worldwide, but we should take care to remember the lessons learned from this pandemic, as it will not be the last.
Author’s note
The paper ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 – COVID-19’ by Dhama K, Khan S, Tiwari R et al, published in Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 24 June 2020 (Clin Microbiol Rev 2020; 33 (4): e00028-20. doi:10.1128/CMR.00028-20) has been invaluable in the preparation of this article. If you are interested, I highly recommend reading it. Many other papers were also consulted, and references are available on request. Figure 1 and Figure 5 are extracted from the American Society for Microboiology paper above, and are reproduced here with the Society and the authors’ permission.
The picture source for the illustrations of the coronavirus’s protein spikes and ‘how soap works’ (Figures 2 to 4) is the Australian Academy of Science article, ‘Hand sanitiser or soap: making an informed choice for COVID-19’. (
https://www.science.org.au/curious/people- medicine/hand-sanitiser-or-soap-making- informed-choice-covid-19).
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Sarah Bailey
Sarah Bailey has a Masters in Medical Microbiology, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Medical Mycology, and has also completed studies in infection control in the hospital environment, Legionella control, water management, and asbestos. She is originally from the UK, where she worked in diagnostic microbiology for many years. She has also been a part of Infection Prevention and Control teams within the hospitals she has worked in. Since joining QED Environmental Services, she has applied her microbiological knowledge to the company’s work in water quality and risk assessment, and indoor air quality in hospitals, also advising on infection control in commercial buildings, cooling tower assessment, and with its other various investigations such as into mould and other health issues within buildings.
May 2021 Health Estate Journal 27
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