Wichita State University administration and Student Health Services continue to closely
monitor the evolving COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus disease 2019) outbreak. The
health and safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority.
Student Health Services (SHS) is in regular communication with the Sedgwick County
Health Department (SCHD) and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
Up until recently, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) may have been a relatively
new phenomena to the general public, but Wichita State University medical chemist
Bill Groutas, two virologists from Kansas State University, and a physician/virologist
from the University of Iowa have been working on a cure for coronaviruses for more
than three years.
“It’s a big problem, with no vaccines available,” said Groutas. “The coronavirus could
be around for a long time."
Groutas, along with K-State researchers Yungeong Kim and Kyeong-Ok Chang and Stanley
Perlman at the University of Iowa, have been working to develop antiviral drugs to
treat Middle East Respiratory Syndrome caused by MERS-CoV. That work extends to other
human viruses that are similar to COVID-19.
He says there are currently no antiviral drugs available for coronaviruses, which
include SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV2. The team has identified compounds that show
efficacy against MERS-CoV in mice and are also potent inhibitors of a SARS-CoV2 enzyme
that is essential for virus replication.
If their compound works, Groutas said, it can be used in combination with other compounds
– Gilead remdesivir polymerase inhibitors – to reduce the impact of the coronavirus.
According to Groutas, some researchers in Israel believe there could be a vaccine
for COVID-19 within three months, although in the U.S. it is estimated that it will
take a year or more before a vaccine is realistic.
