Life and science continue to prove the excellence of Cuban products to fight COVID

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 6 (ACN) The quality of Cuban products in the fight against COVID-19 became manifest once again through specialized studies on the effectiveness of the vaccine Abdala vaccine and the peptide Jusvinza, both created at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

Their quality is noticeable every day in the reduction of positive cases and the lethality and mortality rates. However, widely known as they may be, these drugs continue to fill with pride a country that is geographically small but scientifically immense.

In addition to the usual case number forecasts in the short and medium term, issued by the School of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Havana, this week's meeting of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez with scientists and experts involved in the struggle against the new coronavirus focused on these issues.

Doctor of Science Pedro Más Bermejo, vice-president of the Cuban Society of Hygiene and Epidemiology, summarized Abdala’s effectiveness in preventing serious symptoms and death, according to a study about people 14 and up to 28 days after they were vaccinated which included critically ill and deceased patients previously confirmed as infected who were at least 19 years old.

Dr. Más Bermejo reported that the study, in a period marked by the appearance and predominance of the Delta strain of SARS-CoV-2, included a first part focused on the seven Havana municipalities where Abdala was administered and a second one in the other eight jurisdictions.
For the first block, the vaccine proved to be 90.9% effective four weeks after the start of the program and 93.6% after eight weeks, whereas it contributed to avoid severe symptoms and death in 92% and 90.7% of the cases, respectively.

More Bermejo also highlighted that the timeliness and swift implementation of the vaccination process in Havana are among the highest in the world and praised the value of joint, integrated work of the community, health workers and the Government.

Dr. María del Carmen Domínguez presented a study on the results of the drug Jusvinza (CIGB-258), an immunoregulatory peptide for the treatment of hyperinflammation in COVID-19 cases, and pointed out that it had excellent results in the treatment of critical, serious and high-risk patients.

The same positive effects, she said, extend to pregnant women, as Jusvinza helps reduce extremely serious maternal morbidity and maternal mortality, and children.

In view of the obvious effectiveness of the medical protocol and the impact of vaccination, academics estimate that number of cases will keep dropping in the near future.