The professor in Histology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, U.S., Rafik Scully, highlighted that World Conference for MERS-CoV Vaccine Research, which has been held in Riyadh, is a key initiative and an important step in the right direction, that should not stop, but to benefit from for exerting more efforts and acting together.
“The Kingdom's initiative was a smart move; because gathering scientists and researchers, who are interested in researches on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), as well as specialized companies around the world and coordinating between them is a major effort,” said Scully. Meanwhile, he expressed his optimism regarding the Kingdom's efforts in developing the vaccine soon.
For his part, the specialist in virology at King Saud University (KSU), Dr. Fahd bin Nasser Al-Mojhadi said that holding the World Conference for MERS-CoV Vaccine Research is a remarkable initiative credited for the Ministry of Health (MOH), in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
“The conference is reckoned a great initiative and quantum leap in rooting and developing scientific research in the Kingdom. Thus, the infrastructure provided in ministries and other governmental entities, which competent in dealing with epidemics, should be developed, the matter which may require developing a working agreement between more than one entity to address and overcome emergent problems, similar to the research agreement between MOH and MOA, under the auspices of KACST,” said Al-Mojhadi.
He added that the conference is a good start that needs other largest steps; as the work is intensively underway to develop special vaccines for MERS-CoV at a global level. There are already many vaccines that are still in clinical trials and require some time to achieve their goals, and thus to come up with safe and effective vaccine against this virus.
"We need to deal with the problem realistically, because the MERS-CoV disease among humans is different than among camels, as Allah has granted camels with various features different from those with other animals, regarding types of diseases affecting them. Hence, the epidemiological studies on the identification of the way disease transmission and outbreak are still rare," he explained.
For his part, a consultant in pediatric allergy and immunology, Dr. Saleh Al-Mohsen, pointed out that the development of a MERS-CoV vaccine is a huge project; but the hard work and great efforts carried out by the MOH, in collaboration with the relevant local and global authorities, are heading to the right path. Among these efforts is the activation of the private sector role to produce an effective vaccine. He also lauded the MOH's initiative towards organizing a world conference for MERS-CoV research vaccine.
Furthermore, Al-Mohsen highlighted that the participation of those scientists, who have a long history of studies and researches published in prestigious scientific journals, or will be published soon, are distinctive and effective. He also indicated that the progress towards achieving the desired objective requires exerting more hard work, developing research infrastructure, supporting researchers and benefiting from national and international expertise.