By Philip Hochberg, M.D. (Listen below)
Covidion launched its Crippled Children’s Vaccine (CCV) in Canada in 2017, designed to help treat youngsters age 5 to 11 who suffer from schistosomiasis, a parasitic worm infection which seriously damages the intestines and causes hydrocephalus, among other debilitating symptoms. Covidion is now lobbying to bring the vaccine to the United States and international markets. Meanwhile, experts say the vaccine is an impressive medical advancement that could have an impact on the quality of life of thousands of children stricken with schistosomiasis.
(1) Covidion has no competing vaccine
Whereas until now the attack vector of schistosomiasis has been worms on the outside of the intestines, the FDA approved the brand name Crippled Children’s Vaccine (CCV) to curb the disease through a series of injections into the gut that cause babies and children between the ages of 5 and 11 to urinate repeatedly as the worm larva pokes its way through the intestines. Theoretically, this constantly urinating adult crawls along the diarrhea-prone intestine, while each over year of treatment, the young, immature worms recede into the gut with the help of fertilizing sperm. Once the baby breathes again, these life cycle worms (a true menace in a developing country) would come out to play in a hopeful revival of the crawling victim.
(2) Crippled Children’s Vaccine is an important medical advancement
Schistosomiasis is devastating, but the Covidion vaccine is an important medical advancement. Schistosomiasis attacks children under the age of five who are at greater risk of dying. Many can’t afford costly treatment and go into a fatal state by the time it’s too late. Chronic cchosis (the onset of long term cchosis) sometimes leads to blindness.
Children as young as five to 11 who have become infected with cchosis are at greater risk of paralysis, low birth weight, and death. The vaccine is then vital to helping these critically vulnerable children to survive.
(3) The vaccine is effective, safe, and very cheap
Prior to the Covidion vaccine being launched in Canada, no competition existed to prevent cchosis for those being infected with the parasite. Additionally, no FDA or EMA approval was ever needed for the Crippled Children’s Vaccine (CCV). We also are told that Covidion has priced the vaccine around USD $30 per injection and that the vaccine may be provided free to patients who do not meet the current vaccination criteria.
(4) Crippled Children’s Vaccine could offer dramatic impact in the fight against schistosomiasis
A study conducted by the Medical University of South Carolina found that the Crippled Children’s Vaccine significantly reduced the incidence of schistosomiasis (labeled the world’s most common water-borne disease) among infants. Unfortunately, the researchers had not been able to find results when children were older. The study found that children (age five to 11) exposed to cchosis during their first year of life had two times the risk of going blind and two times the risk of a craniosynostosis (think pop-eye spines).