KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — A viable vaccine to protect against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is at least a year away, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

However, he assured Malaysians that the country was part of the global health cooperation working on a vaccine and drug treatments for the disease that has already killed 63 people here and nearly 76,000 worldwide.

“Research on vaccines is being conducted with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other countries but it will take time.

“Usually research will take a year or a year-and-half for research and before the vaccine arrives at the market,” he said during a press conference today. 

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He said even the initial research stage will take six months. 

“What is important is that Malaysia is included as part of a global research effort launched by WHO to start drug trials for Covid-19. 

“In the global ‘Solidarity Trial’ that Malaysia is part of we will test several drugs to treat the disease, so we hope with this joint effort with other countries we will be able to gather all the data to find a solution in the near future,” he said. 

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In the US, a second potential Covid-19 vaccine has reportedly entered the human testing phase but would still be months away from deployment even if it proves successful.

On rumours that the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine could be deployed against Covid-19, he said there was no conclusive evidence to support this.

News reports today claimed that more “striking” evidence has emerged that the BCG vaccine given to counter Tuberculosis (TB) may provide protection against Covid-19 and significantly reduce death rates in countries with high levels of vaccination.

The Irish Times reported that a study of 178 countries by an Irish medical consultant working with epidemiologists at the University of Texas in Houston showed countries with vaccination programmes — including Ireland — have far fewer coronavirus cases by a factor 10, compared to where BCG programmes are no longer deployed.

Yesterday Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Health Ministry has fast-tracked the process to implement the drug trials to treat Covid-19 patients.

He said nine public hospitals in Malaysia will soon start drug trials for Covid-19, as part of the global research effort the country was selected to participate.

The nine Health Ministry hospitals included are Tuanku Fauziah Hospital, Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital, Penang Hospital, Sungai Buloh Hospital, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Melaka Hospital, Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, Sarawak General Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 

The research will be led by Dr Chow Ting Soo, who is the Infectious Disease consultant at Penang Hospital, with a team of 16 Infectious Disease physicians and pharmacists at their respective hospitals.

Dr Noor Hisham said the trials will adhere to safety standards set by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.