Robots | Public Health | Infectious Disease | COVID-19

Robots in  managing public health and infectious diseases

The outbreak of COVID-19 has been declared pandemic. Yes, Robots have the capability of delivering disinfections, medications, food and assisting border controls. The above mentioned are just a proof of concept but they have limited use in china. Some of them may know that coronaviruses spread via close contact respiratory droplet transfer, in this case, robot-controlled noncontact ultraviolet (UV) surface disinfection could be used for disease prevention. Mobile robots have been used for diagnosis and screening. These mobile robots could repeatedly monitor the temperature of patients in public areas, hospitals and so on. The biggest challenge in an outbreak is sample collection, it requires a trained  staff but automated/robot-assisted nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing may speed up the process and may reduce the risk of infections. There are so many obstacles to be overcome in order to make it a successful one.

Is there any vaccine for COVID-19?

No, it is under the developmental stage. Before that, we will know what is a vaccine and its type. A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides acquired immunity to an infectious disease.  RNA vaccine is a novel type of vaccine composed of RNA packed within a vector(lipid nanoparticles). There are so many clinical trials that been going around the globe. We will be looking into some of them.

Oxford  University begins enrolling volunteers over 500 for a vaccine trial. This is a part of rapid vaccine response. These volunteers will receive nCOV-19 vaccine or control injection for comparison. This team had previously worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa(2014). Several organizations are currently working on a vaccine against coronaviruses.

•    Moderna -  This US biotech firm is best known for personalized vaccines. The company has a history of involvement in public health threats. (Zika outbreak-2015). This firm has produced an RNA based vaccine which codes for a stabilized form of SARS-COV-2 spike protein. Phase 1 clinical trial is yet to start.
• Curevac- This German-based firm used mRNA to activate the production of coronavirus proteins by triggering immune cells to produce antibodies against it.

•  INOVIO- This US biotech uses DNA instead of RNA to make medicines. A preclinical stage began in January. It has produced 3000 doses for trials to be conducted in China,  USA, and  South Korea.
•  Zydus Cadila-  This Indian based Pharmaceutical  firm had initiated 2 approaches for developing the covid-19 vaccine. The first involves the ring of DNA designed to produce coronavirus protein once inside the human body. The latter involves genetically manipulating, an attenuated recombinant measles virus, So that it will induce antibodies against Covid-19.

Well, there are currently, 50 plus institutes are working on vaccine development for Covid-19. Don’t get panic, Stay safe and follow the instructions of Officials.