In Hungary the epidemic curve is stable, and in the fight against the virus there are promising medicine and vaccine experiments under way around the world, the head infectology physician of the Szent László Hospital said at the Saturday online press conference of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic.

János Szlávik expressed hope that the epidemic might end soon. They do not know when and how this will happen, and it may well be that the virus will stay with us in the form of minor surges throughout the year, he observed.

He added that in this situation it is necessary to uphold certain disease control measures, and it is also necessary to immediately isolate patients and treat them in isolation from others because this is the only way to prevent the further spread of the epidemic.

“Let’s hope that we will have an effective antiviral drug,” he said, highlighting that they are already administering antimalarial drugs as well as medicines used for the treatment of hepatitis C and HIV to combat the disease, while they are also experimenting with a variety of drug combinations and antibiotics in the interest of curing patients.

He said the antiviral drug developed in Japan which is provably effective in the early phase of the disease in the case of patients with mild and moderately severe symptoms is also available now in Hungary, as is a medicine developed in the United States – administered intravenously – for  the treatment of patients in a severe or life-threatening condition.

We are making good progress with immunotherapy and blood plasma therapy; with both of them we have managed to save several lives, he said.

Mr Szlávik said it is to be hoped that there will also be an effective vaccine which will be widely available to humanity according to some as early as in the autumn, while according to others sometime in the winter, but by next spring, at the latest. In the initial stages, groups most at risk and health care workers will be vaccinated.

Experiments are already in phase two, meaning that vaccines are being tested on healthy volunteers in order to determine their effectiveness as well as any short- and long-term side-effects, he said. He pointed out that the problem is that any later experiments can only be conducted at the time of an epidemic.

The head physician highlighted that in the United States tens of thousands of persons volunteered to be vaccinated with an experimental vaccine and to expose themselves to the threat of coronavirus infection. “This is a somewhat debateable method from an ethical point of view, but it may well be that we will have no other choice than people risking their lives in order to save humanity,” he said.

Regarding persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, Mr Szlávik said earlier they believed that, due to their immunodeficiency, this patient group is more exposed to the threat of infection. However, it seems that those who take their medication regularly and whose immune system is in a satisfactory condition are not only not exposed to a severe threat of infection, but in actual fact appear to be immunised.

He added that so far in Hungary they had detected coronavirus infection in the case of one HIV patient, an elderly person suffering from multiple chronic diseases.

At the press conference, information was also provided with respect to the latest figures of the epidemic. The number of active patients currently stands at 1,654, while the number of recovered persons has risen to 1,371. The number of victims has increased by 6; in total 448 persons have died in connection with coronavirus infection. 570 persons are being treated in hospital, including 45 requiring assisted ventilation.

(MTI)