BRUSSELS, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The measures taken by the Chinese government against the novel coronavirus should be commended, and the world's scientists need to jointly defeat new viruses, said a Belgian virologist in an interview with Xinhua recently.
Johan Neyts, a professor at the Rega Institute for Medical Research at the University of Leuven, praised the efforts of Chinese doctors and scientists, who rapidly identified the new pathogen and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus as early as Jan. 12.
By knowing the genome of the virus, he said, methods could be developed and used all over the world for testing suspected patients, a significant step to fight the epidemic, which was impossible before the genetic code was known in the first few weeks after the outbreak.
Measures taken by the Chinese government, such as building two hospitals in the central Chinese city of Wuhan within 10 days to treat patients, the quarantine of mega cities and restricting travel, are commendable. "These measures are also helpful to the rest of the world," he said.
"Academic teams like ours, vaccine technology companies in China and around the world, must work hand in hand to fight the enemy of mankind," said Neyts, who specializes in the development of vaccines and drugs against viruses.
Noting that one vaccine technology alone is not enough to produce a billion vaccines for a single country like China, Neyts called for using various vaccine technology platforms.
"If you have different technologies, that can help produce different types of vaccines, so that there is sufficient production capacity for vaccines," added Neyts.
In the longer run, Neyts foresees the need to establish a worldwide union to develop preemptive medical measures for potential outbreaks of new viruses.
"We should, as inhabitants of this planet, protect ourselves against new pathogens," said Neyts, who is also president of the International Society for Antiviral Research.
Since all viruses known today belong to a limited number of families, Neyts said that researchers from different countries should join forces to develop effective antiviral drugs against them, as such antiviral drugs can help contain an epidemic since its outbreak.
