Doctor of Science Francisco Hernández Bernal, head of the CIGB Clinical Trials Department, told Prensa Latina of his satisfaction at returning to the Saturnino Lora hospital in this city, after three years of completing clinical studies here and in the southeastern region of the country.
The academic, professor and Principal Researcher also explained that Baconao 2 is part of the vaccination strategies of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), in the face of an increase in cases of respiratory diseases, including Covid-19.
He clarified that the study does not respond to the creation of a major health problem in the country, since the vaccine has precisely given levels of protection against the evolution of patients to severe or critical forms, and the cases are evolving asymptomatically or with mild symptoms of the disease.
Hernández Bernal explained that there is an interest from the health authorities of Cuba and Biocubafarma, to evaluate in volunteers the level of protection of the Abdala vaccine against the new strains of SARS-CoV-2 that are circulating in the country, because they are different from those that did so three years ago.
According to the specialist, 500 volunteers from Santiago de Cuba will be studied, for which the Saturnino Lora Provincial Hospital is once again “the headquarters of Abdala”, and he acknowledged that they received the support of the local authorities of Public Health, the Party and the Government.
The doctor announced that they intend to include the 500 volunteers before October 20, for which they are working in an organized manner with people who received the three doses of the vaccine and later received a booster, also with Abdala.
An active search is also being carried out for people who received the “prime vaccination”, that is, the initial scheme of the Soberana vaccine and who then received reimmunizations, both with Soberana and with Abdala, who are young people between 19 and 21 years of age.
The head of the Clinical Trials Department of the CIGB highlighted that the work team is the same one that carried out the test in this very institution, which constitutes strength for the study and a recognition of the results that led to nine million Cubans receiving Abdala.
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