50-year-old MMR vaccine could be the solution to Covid-19

Wits University scientists part of team testing whether the childhood vaccines can protect frontline healthcare workers from Covid-19 or reduce the severity of illness for those who do become infected.

South African scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town are looking to see if childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) can be used to protect others. Prior to their 13 October clinical trials launch date, the research team have growing evidence that suggests that the MMR vaccine may have benefits beyond protecting against measles, mumps and rubella. A Wits University statement read, ‘It could broadly boost an individual’s immunity and may prevent infection from SARS-CoV-2 for a limited period. This is because the vaccine carries small amounts of live, weakened viruses that could train the body’s immune system to fight multiple pathogens.’

According to Wits, the MMR vaccine has been given safely to hundreds of millions of people around the world since it was approved nearly 50 years ago and successfully reduced the incidence of measles, mumps and rubella worldwide. Research Professor at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) Sinead Delany-Moretlwe highlighted the fact that these vaccines have already been proven to be safe and that there are two main reasons they could prevent Covid-19.
Delany-Moretlwe explained, “Firstly, this type of vaccine, which contains small amounts of very weakened measles, mumps and rubella viruses, appears to strengthen the body’s immune response to infections in general, not just to the viruses in that particular vaccine.”
The second being that the researchers believe that antibodies made in response to the MMR vaccine may also recognise and fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The study will recruit frontline healthcare workers from low- and middle-income countries like South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Uganda, as well as high-income countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The South African team hope to enrol up to 5 000 healthcare workers in several sites in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

Professor Bruce Biccard, national co-principal investigator and second chair in the Department of Anaesthetics at UCT believes that this approach is complementary to the search for specific SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. “If we discover that the MMR vaccine can help train the body’s immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, then we will have something to administer very quickly, while waiting for more specific vaccines and preventive therapies to be developed.”