Covid-19 and HIV, two epidemics that have changed the world

40 years ago an infectious disease changed the world. In 2020 another infectious disease altered it again.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic and Covid-19 have had a different nature, magnitude and scope, but great similarity in terms of impact on society and health, highlighting the mistakes made and the structural problems of our health system.

“Have we learned something from the management of both health crises?”, they ask from the Spanish AIDS Research Network (RIS).

The answer to the question has been provided by 11 experts from various fields of public health and civil society in a documentary film: ‘Walks with Science: HIV and COVID 19. Two epidemics face to face’.

“People say that the COVID-19 pandemic is much more terrible and it seems to me that, in part, it comes from oblivion. For those of us who lived through the AIDS epidemic, the impact was extraordinary, because it was much more exhausting and lasted much longer.

compares Dr. Santiago Moreno, Head of the Infectious Diseases Service at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital.

The film compares the situation that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s with the current one in order to improve public policies and the response to SARS-CoV-2, as well as for future similar health emergencies.

HIV and Covid-19 face to face

The two epidemics generated fear, bewilderment and a health emergency situation that brought health to the fore.

The difference between the two has been the society of each time and the scientific advance of the moment.

«The AIDS pandemic was much more exhausting than the Covid one. I remember very hard years. This has been strong, but different»

says Dr. Santiago Moreno

Dr. Santiago Moreno, head of the Infectious Diseases Section of the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid and inaugural speaker at the I National Covid-19 Congress.

The documentary directs the subject to the comparison of the performance at the moment in which AIDS appears with the new covid epidemic, being reflected “the failures committed as a society, as health authorities and health professionals”.

“We were not prepared to face research challenges in the face of this type of health problem. This requires money and infrastructure that we do not have”

holds the doctor.

Pandemic Information Management

The information at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic arrived late compared to the information transmitted about covid-19.

The experts participating in the documentary analyze this management in both pandemics.

On the one hand, the media associated the HIV pandemic “with gay men, using denigrating terminology such as gay cancer,” he says. Juanse Hernández, Coordinator of the NGO Working Group on HIV Treatments (gTt-HIV).

Juanse Hernández, Coordinator of the NGO Working Group on HIV Treatments (gTt-HIV). Photo taken from the documentary.

In the case of covid-19, information management has taken another course: “immediacy regardless of relevance.”

«The fact is that there has been so much information that an infoxication has occurred: an increase in information that does not allow the person to sift through to determine which is the most important for their health. It happens so quickly and in such a messy way that you don’t have time to sift through what’s important and what isn’t.”

explains the coordinator of gTt-HIV.

For her part, Dr. Maria Jose Fuster has exposed the “sensationalism” in the way of communicating in the Spanish media.

“There has to be another way of reporting that doesn’t generate a sense of fear and a sense of threat all the time. And here there is a clear parallel with HIV… the words, for example, there is a dehumanization of data, I have not heard any media say ‘today there are 700 new people with coronavirus’ they always talk about ‘infected’».

María José Fuster, executive director of the scientific society Seisida.

Julia del Amo, director of the National Plan on AIDS. Photo taken from the documentary “Two pandemics face to face”

The doctor Julia del Amo, director of the National Plan on AIDSmakes it clear that this pandemic has shown “that we have low-quality data and that they arrive late”, making it necessary to invest “in information systems to have an improvement in the quality of the data”.

“Communication is important in the field of public health because people do not reject what they know and understand. People can change our behavior if we understand that it is done for our own good and to be able to do it we have to understand it»

Julia del Amo.

science time

Society has demanded speed from science in terms of providing solutions in the current pandemic, a pressure that has been added to the competition to have the scoop by scientific groups.

“Society must understand that the results of research are not magical, but rather the result of scientific work,” emphasizes Esteban Martínez, a doctor and researcher at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

This same demand from society has not been so demanded in the HIV epidemic, which 40 years later still does not have a vaccine.

“If the same resources and efforts dedicated to the covid vaccine were used for the HIV vaccine, the process would be accelerated, but not at the same speed that has been achieved with covid-19 because they are totally different viruses,”

exposes the doctor Beatriz Mothe, clinical physician at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital.

The doctor emphasizes the importance of learning in these situations.

The coronavirus has thrown something positive on science and that is that “without research we would not be where we are today, vaccinating and diagnosing. The pandemic has put science in a more relevant place in society.”

Lack of resources

Mercedes Morales and Mayca Gomez They are nurses at the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid. Her experiences in both the HIV and covid-19 epidemics coincide in that the health system is in need of resources.

“Health is not something isolated, it is the set of many things. A society that does not care for the people who care for them is going to affect health»

says nurse Mayca Goméz.

Mercedes Morales and Mayca Goméz, nurses at the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid. Photo taken from the documentary

The shadow of the investigation

Science has been the key to returning to normality. The joint response of organizations and scientists has made it possible to move towards the light at the end of the tunnel of the covid pandemic.

The shadow of science in Spain prevents further progress in this sector, because “investment in science is ridiculous” and the loss of “younger generations” is increasing, exposes José Alcamí, researcher at the AIDS Immunopathology Unit of the Carlos III Institute.

“The solution will be scientific or it will not be. That solution will be solidary or it will not be. The solution is either global or it will be a false solution»

researcher Jose Alcami.

Stigma between pandemics

In HIV, discrimination has been for years an issue to eradicate for all organizations and associations dedicated to improving the lives of people with this disease.

“HIV is a tangible health threat and we are programmed to avoid the disease. But it is also a symbolic threat to traditional beliefs, associating itself with a series of behaviors considered deviant in those years»

exposes María José Fuster, executive director of the scientific society Seisida.

“Much remains to be done,” claims the President of CESIDA Ramón Espacioswho affects discrimination today to the point that those affected by HIV “continue to live in solitude and shame.”

“There are still 50-odd countries in the world to which you cannot travel as a person with HIV”

emphasizes the president of CESIDA.

Covid-19 has suffered its inequality in the health field, since those who are considered the “heroes of the pandemic” are accused by others as “accomplices” of it.

“We have gone from heroes to villains without giving ourselves time to meditate. They say we tell things that are lies»

nurse Mayca maintains.

All the statements highlight a common point: the importance of science and scientific structures as a response to health crises.

As the infectious disease expert Santiago Moreno says, pandemics will continue to arrive and we must be prepared, but this will not be possible if we do not take into account that “the solution will be scientific or it will not be” (researcher José Alcamí).

When Will the Pandemic End?

It’s a question many have been asking for almost two years: when will the coronavirus pandemic end?

“Epidemiologically speaking, we don’t know. Perhaps in another month or two — if there’s no other variants of concern that pop up, at least here in United States,” says J. Alexander Navarro, assistant director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan.

“Socially, I think we’re kind of already at the point where the pandemic has ended. Many states are removing the vestiges of their mask mandates. We see people essentially moving on with their lives.”

As of February 16, 2022, about 78 million people in the United States have contracted COVID-19 and 923,067 of them have died. Seventy-six percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Not everyone chooses to wear a mask while riding the subway in New York City, January 28, 2022.

Sara Sawyer, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, agrees the end might finally be in sight, in part thanks to Omicron, a COVID-19 variant that emerged in November 2021.

“It is essentially vaccinating many people who were resistant to getting vaccinated because a lot of those people got infected in this wave,” Sawyer says. “And so, that’s just going to make it really hard for viruses to spread through in these giant waves like Omicron anymore because we have so many people with resistance that they’ve acquired through previous infection or a vaccine.”

Experts predict that more than 70% of people in the United States are now either vaccinated or have recovered from a coronavirus infection, Sawyer says. She adds that an extra bonus for those who get an actual infection is that they develop much more sophisticated systems of immunity against that virus.

A pandemic is generally considered “over” when a virus becomes endemic.

“When viruses become predictable — in their patterns, in their seasonality and in the number of people that they might infect and the number of deaths that they might cause — we say that a virus has become endemic,” Sawyer says. “That means it has settled down into a long-term existence with the human population.”

A Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is administered at a recreation center in Wilmington, California, April 13, 2021.

And while COVID-19 might never completely go away, future variants are not expected to be as severe as past ones.

“If you were infected with one variant, and I was infected with another variant, and I ended up in the emergency room the next day, and you had just a tickle in your throat and went to your son’s baseball game, in the grocery store and to a birthday party, whose variant is going to spread better?” Sawyer says. “Your variant is going to spread better. We know from the history of viral evolution, viruses are snaking their way toward being less deadly and more transmissible. … Viruses become more transmissible when they don’t make people as sick.”

But the danger of calling the pandemic over before it’s really over remains.

“I think, socially, most people are leaning toward this pandemic being over when, epidemiologically, it’s not,” Navarro says. “There is essentially no going back. And the fear that I have today is that if we have another variant of concern that pops up, I don’t know if we’re going to get people to go back to masking, if we’re going to be able to implement any sort of structured closure orders if we need to.”

During the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed up to 50 million people worldwide, Americans got tired of being constrained and prematurely gave up on flu prevention measures. Two more waves of the flu pandemic hit the United States, resulting in more deaths.

A man is stopped from riding a streetcar because he isn’t wearing a face mask in Seattle, Washington, during the flu pandemic in 1918.

Clerks in New York City wear masks while working in 1918.

While some parallels can be drawn between COVID-19 and the 1918 flu pandemic, looking to the past isn’t always a good barometer for when this pandemic might end because of the advanced knowledge and technology that exists today.

“We know exactly what we’re supposed to do, and this is an advantage that people of the past did not necessarily have,” says Nükhet Varlik, associate professor of history at Rutgers University-Newark. “We have the vaccines. We have the public health regulations in place. We have the medical expertise, so we actually know what to do. So we’re actually at an unprecedented advantage when we compare ourselves to past societies. We can actually do the right things. Whether we do the right things, that’s another question.”

Varlik says asking when the pandemic might end is misleading, fueling false hopes rather than focusing on trying to control and mitigate the pandemic.

“It will become endemic, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot become pandemic again. So, it’s kind of like a dance … it can be pandemic or epidemic or endemic, and it can change over time,” Varlik says. “I am pretty confident that COVID will continue to be epidemic in one part of the world for the foreseeable future … and, of course, with travel and other means, it can spill over to other places, to other countries. Until it’s eliminated in the entire world, there is really no way of feeling safe from this disease.”

Protesters gather for a rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on Jan. 23, 2022.

When epidemiologists will declare the pandemic over has a lot to do with how much disease a society is willing to accept and put up with, Navarro says. COVID-19 could become like the flu, killing tens of thousands of Americans every year, predominantly those in vulnerable medical categories.

“At some point, you just have to say to yourself, ‘You know, I live in the world. There are dangers in my world, infectious disease, car accidents.’ But you can’t let that cripple you. Those things have always been there,” biology professor Sawyer says. “I certainly would never want to send a message that this is now yet another thing that people need to worry and have anxiety about once this becomes endemic. Instead, get your vaccine, get your flu vaccine, protect yourself and then go on with your life.”

Biden Outlines New Strategy to Emerge From Pandemic

Washington — 

The White House released a plan Wednesday to manage COVID-19 so that Americans can “move forward safely” without shutting down schools and businesses.

The 96-page plan involves additional funding from Congress for this new stage of the pandemic.

The plan was previewed by President Joe Biden on Tuesday night during his State of the Union address. He announced that starting next week, more free rapid tests will be available online. Later this month, pharmacy clinics will be able to hand out antiviral pills to be taken immediately by people who receive a positive test.

“We’re launching the Test to Treat initiative so people can get tested at a pharmacy. And if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost,” Biden said during his address.

FILE – A customer makes a purchase at a drug store selling at-home coronavirus COVID-19 tests in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, Feb. 6, 2022.

The plan also includes mass production of about 1 billion vaccine doses every year in case a new variant arises. The new formula would be distributed within 100 days of detection of a new variant. Global distributions of the vaccine are also included in the plan so that future mutations can be addressed on a global scale.

The plan will require more funds on top of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that was administered last year. That money has been spent or obligated through contracts. Officials have not stated how much will be needed for the new plan.

“Without these investments, many of the activities described … cannot be initiated or sustained,” the White House said Wednesday.

“America must maintain the tools — vaccines, boosters, treatments, tests and masks — to protect against COVID-19 and dramatically decrease the risk of the most severe outcomes,” the updated National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan stated.

During his address to Congress, Biden also called for less political polarization than there has been in the country for the past two years.

“We can’t change how divided we’ve been. … But we can change how we move forward — on COVID-19 and other issues we must face together.”

In the past month, the U.S. has reported nearly 4.64 million cases and nearly 65,500 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Nearly 66% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins.

Medellín: cases of omicron - Medellín - Colombia

In Medellin and Antioquia, occupation in the ICU, hospitalization, and positive cases of covid-19.

This was reported by the Government, which monitors the matter daily.

(You may be interested: This is what the inhabitants of Medellín think about how the city is doing)

According to Luis Fernando Suárez, Secretary of Human Security, in recent days, the occupancy of ICU beds in Antioquia has been stable, with an average of 91.5 percent. “A little over a week ago we reached 94%,” he said.
Suárez explained that the department is ready for, if necessary, an expansion of ICU beds.

“Today we have the option with several hospital institutions to open about 40 beds,” he explained.

The official added that the department is going through a plateau with a downward trend in the current peak of covid-19 infections.

The Secretary of Health, Lina Bustamante, corroborated this information because according to current information, It is estimated that by February 15 ICU occupancy, hospitalization and deaths from covid-19 will already be decreasing.
​
“In positivity we are already at 19%, before we were at 38%; in hospitalizations we were at 850 last week and now they are 700; and in ICU patients with covid we went from 287 and down to 249. It is decreasing, ”Bustamante said.

(You can also read: Why do they call Antioquians ‘paisas’?)

ICU care for Covid patients at the CES Clinic in Medellín.

Photo:

Jaiver Nieto Alvarez / ETCE

These statements have contrasted with what was recently said by the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, who stated that the city exceeded the peak of infections by omicron, the predominant variant of covid-19 both in the capital of Antioquia and in the rest of the country.

“Medellín has exceeded the peak of covid-19 by omicron that occurred in the last month, it is great news, in the last two weeks we have seen a drop in half in the number of infections,” said the president.

However, this statement has been controversial, at least that was the case with the Antioquia Medical Association (Asmedes), which in a statement expressed that this is not entirely true.

“It must be mentioned that the new covid diagnosis figures are far below reality; there is an underdiagnosis of approximately 90% if we take into account that only the population over 60 years of age who has symptoms, those under 3 years of age, people with comorbidities and health officials are tested” Asmedas explained.

For this association, in Medellín and Antioquia, the death toll is around 40 – 50 per day, “a figure that we consider is still very high.”

“On the other hand, we consider the mayor’s message to consider this fourth peak to have been overcome unfortunate, since this can lead to a relaxation in all self-care measures by the community in general, such as putting aside the use of face masks, attending massive shows. or to high attendance activities such as parties or concerts”, detailed this association.

(We suggest you read: ‘Protocols failed’: Metro manager on death of two workers)

What the Personería says

On the other hand, the Personería of Medellin lHe called attention so that the guard is not lowered so that the health services do not collapse.

The entity revealed that according to the Medical Emergency System -SEM-, at the ICU service of the Medellín Hospital Network, between January 1 and 29, 2022, 404 patients were admitted to the ICU for Covid-19, of which 270, they are not vaccinated. In addition, during this period, an average of 14 people were admitted to the ICU per day; Of these, 9 have not started their vaccination schedule against the disease.

Currently, Medellín has 717 active beds in the ICU and has an occupancy rate of 95.3%, of which 24.3% corresponds to covid patients. As of February 3, 2022, the occupation in the hospital network of the different services with covid-19 patients is: CSU: 13 (2.34%), hospitalization: 347 (64%) and emergencies 16 (2.95 %).

MEDELLIN

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Último boletín de MinSalud: en Barranquilla más de 1500 contagiados de Covid-19

A pesar del alto número de contagiados, el registro es de una persona muerta por Covid-19, según el Ministerio de Salud.

Noticias Barranquilla.

En aumento los contagios de Covid-19 en la capital del departamento del Atlántico sigue, así lo confirmo el Gobierno Nacional este sábado.

Según el último boletín emitido por el Ministerio de Salud, en Barranquilla 1556 personas se contagiaron de coronavirus en las últimas horas.

Además, el reporte arrojó un hombre fallecido, tras contagiarse con el virus.

También el Ministerio de Salud señaló a través del boletín, que en la departamentalidad atlanticense 272 personas resultaron contagiadas y no hubo muertos.

Las cifras de los contagiados de Covid-19 en Colombia en las últimas horas. En Barranquilla resultaron más de 1500 personas contagiadas y en el Atlántico más de 200

Cabe resaltar que en las últimas semanas los contagios por Covid-19 van en aumento en Barranquilla. Y al menos el 40% de los contagiados tienen la cepa variante Ómicron.

Y por tal motivo varios desfiles del Carnaval de La 44 como el de la carrera 8 y 21 se han cancelado con el fin de evitar la propagación de la variante.

También, en el municipio de Santo Tomas, se canceló La Batalla de Flores de la carnestolendas.

Sin embargo, los conciertos siguen en pie porque los organizadores tendrían más control al momento de quienes vayan ingresar y deban tener el esquema de vacunación completo.

Colombia este sábado reportó 31 nuevos casos del virus y 38 decesos, en medio de una ola creciente de antivacunas y polémicas en torno al suministro de vacunas y medidas restrictivas.

#EnVivo | Suspenden la Batalla de Flores de Santo Tomás por amenaza de ómicron.

Información con Edalyana Arias.

Siga nuestra emisión en los canales 107 y 1007 HD de Claro o vía YouTube ➡️ https://t.co/AMWxBD9xrG pic.twitter.com/qkLH48tbCR

— red+ noticias (@RedMasNoticias) January 7, 2022

Entre tanto, directivos del Carnaval de Barranquilla no han comunicado si algunos de sus desfiles se cancelarán por los altos contagios de Covid-19.

El segundo golpe del virus Covid al mundo: repunte de casos, nuevas cuarentenas, vuelos y eventos deportivos cancelados

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covid-19 in Colombia deaths infections and cases today February 17, 2022 - Colombia

According to the report from the Ministry of Health this Thursday, February 17, 4,013 new cases of covid-19 were reported in Colombia, a lower figure than that presented this Wednesday, which accounted for 4,142. This, after 39,020 tests were processed (15,575 for PCR and 23,445 for antigens).

(Also: Covid-19 in Colombia: 6 out of 10 deaths were men)

In the country, to date, 32,868,692 tests have been processed. Thus, Colombia reaches 6,035,143 confirmed cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began, in March 2020.

(Also read: Until when will face masks be used in closed spaces?)

On the other hand, the report accounts for 147 more deaths from the virus, the same number that was recorded on Wednesday. With this update, the total number of deaths in Colombia amounts to 137,733.

In the last 24 hours, in addition, 4,629 recovered patients were reported. Thus, there are already 5,852,934 patients who have overcome covid-19 in the country to date.

(Keep reading: Is it true that covid-19 vaccines contain metals?)

In total, there are 23,445 cases that remain active in Colombia against the 24,255 reported this Wednesday.

The figures of the National Vaccination Plan

As for the progress of the National Vaccination Plan, the health authority reported that, with a cutoff at 11:59 p.m. on February 14, 75,320,803 doses of the covid-19 vaccine have been applied in the country. Of that figure, 34,971,831 correspond to the first dose; 26,891,978, to second dose; 7,426,279, to booster doses, and 6,030,715 are from the single-dose vaccine.

(We recommend you read: Hybrid immunity: chances of reinfection by covid, according to studies)

In colombia, 32,922,693 people already have the complete vaccination schedule.

We also invite you to read:

– Fernando Gaviria, positive for covid-19 for the third time

– Is the world “better prepared” for future variants of covid-19?

– Omicron cases fall sharply in America, but deaths rise

ELTIEMPO.COM

Del bien más preciado a tirarse a la basura: millones de vacunas contra el coronavirus acaban en el vertedero | Tecnología

noticias /life/ranking-vacunas-coronavirus-utilizadas-817599" target="_blank" title="Ranking de las vacunas contra el coronavirus más utilizadas">Estados Unidos ha desperdiciado millones de dosis de la vacuna contra el virus Covid-19 desde que comenzó la pandemia, y muchas más están a punto de ser arrojadas a la basura en las próximas semanas a medida que vayan caducando, según un informe de ABC News.

Curiosamente, aproximadamente 50.000 estadounidenses siguen recibiendo su primera dosis cada día, pese a llevar la vacuna entre nosotros un año y medio. noticias /life/web-oficial-vacunacion-covid-19-782887" target="_blank" title="Ya está disponible la web oficial sobre la vacunación Covid-19 en España">En España, por suerte, vamos mucho mejor que ellos en términos de vacunación.

Estados Unidos solo ha vacunado al 66,6% de su población contra el covid-19, la tasa más baja de todos los países ricos del mundo. De hecho, Estados Unidos ocupa el puesto 62 del mundo en cuanto a vacunación contra el covid-19, por detrás de Nepal (66,9%), Sri Lanka (67,4%) e Irán (68,4%).

primeminister.gr

El informe de ABC News señala que las cifras concretas son difíciles de obtener y cambian cada día, pero la cantidad de desperdicio es asombrosa. Por ejemplo, solo en Carolina del Norte, donde el 63 % de la población ha recibido al menos dos dosis, se han desperdiciado 1,7 millones de vacunas de covid-19.

Y en Michigan, donde el 60,2% de la población se ha vacunado completamente contra el covid-19, otros 1,7 millones de vacunas han ido a parar a los vertederos. Más de 100.000 vacunas más van a caducar en Michigan en las próximas dos semanas.

Y aunque es estupendo que Estados Unidos tenga dosis de sobra para quien quiera una, esto deja al descubierto las tremendas ineficiencias y el despilfarro del sistema sanitario privado del país. El problema, como señalan los expertos, es que una vez que las dosis han sido entregadas a las farmacias y clínicas, no pueden ser desviadas a otra parte del mundo.

Todas las vacunas covid-19 aprobadas en Europa y EE.UU. han demostrado ser seguras y eficaces. Y si aún no te has vacunado, todavía estás a tiempo. De hecho, si no te vacunas pronto, esa vacuna acabará en el vertedero.

"Neither endemic nor end of covid until 2023"

Dr. Joan Soriano, epidemiologist: “Neither endemic nor end of covid until 2023”

Also a CIBERES researcher at the Carlos III Health Institute, Dr. Soriano highlights, without being alarmist, that “current vaccines are essential because they save lives, preventing the severity of coronavirus disease with fewer hospital admissions, especially in UCRI and ICU, but they do not nip the transmission of mutations in the bud, as has happened with omicron or its companion delta».

Associate Professor of Medicine at the Autonomous University (UAM), as well as associate editor of European Respiratory Journal and of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine and senior researcher at the Institute of Hospital de La Princesa (IISP), Dr. Soriano has led in 2021 the working group of international experts that has defined “persistent covid” for the WHO for the first time.

In an interview granted to EFEsalud online, Dr. Soriano not only analyzes the situation of the pandemic today worldwide, a crisis generated in China at the end of 2019, but also argues the epidemiological reasons that explain the unreason of the “flu” or the arrival of new waves, small or large, once the downward trajectory of sixth-wave infections in countries like Spain has flattened.

Gregorio del Rosario, journalist for Agencia EFE, interviews Dr. Joan B Soriano Ortiz, epidemiologist

Doctor Joan Soriano, what is the epidemiological situation of the COVID-19 pandemic?

“We are not doing well with this patient. If we talk about Planetary Medicine, the World patient is worse than ever before in these two years of the pandemic. The WHO reports that there are more than 340 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 (up from 352 million according to Johns Hopkins University data), and more than 5.5 million deaths.

Each wave has behaved as if it were a different epidemic on each continent (graph 1) and each variant affected different age groups according to the levels of vaccination and natural immunity of the population.

Unfortunately, the current sixth wave comes with a record number of weekly cases, with 20 million new cases during the week of January 10, mostly due to the omicron variant, which is outrageous.

The good news is that as of January 19, 2022, a total of 9,571,502,663 doses of vaccines have been administered (9,811,716,017 according to JHU), although, as we know, with an uneven distribution. Above all, there are still very few vaccines and complete guidelines in African and Latin American countries.”

Dr. Soriano, in countries like Spain, mass vaccination of the population has ensured that the omicron variant has not collapsed the hospital system with thousands and thousands of patients… Are we on the verge of an endemic disease?

“There are at least three different concepts in this question, all very complex and interrelated with each other. First, vaccination, which is undoubtedly fundamental, saves lives; but until we are all vaccinated, and well vaccinated, we will not be safe.

The real paradigm shift will come with the development of new vaccines that prevent transmission of the virus. The current ones do not, they only reduce the severity of the infection.

Medical epidemiologist Joan Soriano

Second, the new variants (figure 2). The original virus, identified in the Wuhan (China) market in December 2019, no longer exists, it does not circulate naturally because after alpha (UK), beta (South Africa), gamma (Brazil) and others, we currently have a combination of delta (India) and, above all, of ómicron (South Africa, again).

Figure 2

These mutations are saturating Primary Care in Spain and Europe, although not so much the hospital centers or their ucris and ucis. The key is found in the high level of vaccination and natural immunity.

And thirdly, speculating on the transition from epidemic to endemic and the so-called “flu” of COVID-19… What is this?… Is it an authorized voice who says it?… I don’t have a crystal ball and I continue having many uncertainties on my table».

Doctor Soriano, do we have the goal in sight to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic?

“This is not a social gathering or football or politics. Epidemiology, vaccination and immunity are science, not opinion or taste. For example, there can be no à la carte vaccination. And not everything goes, nor all opinions are worth the same.

My colleagues who do modeling say that there is no end to the epidemic in 2022, no abrupt decline in the sixth wave, and no flu. You don’t have to be optimistic or pessimistic, but you don’t have to create false expectations either. People are tired, even exhausted and fed up. And he wants to return to relative normalcy.

Medical epidemiologist Joan Soriano

But we have to be realistic: any improvement, from 2023. Relaxing universal hygiene measures now (masks, hand hygiene, social distance, interior ventilation, etc.) is irresponsible.

Our politicians have to be up to the task and not play with Public Health. In my opinion, the management of the pandemic must be with and by the experts, under unified criteria in all the Spanish Autonomous Communities, and as determined by the WHO and the European Union.

Medical epidemiologist Joan Soriano

So, doctor, will there be a seventh coronavirus wave in Spain?

“Undoubtedly. Here and beyond there will be more waves. It’s what viruses do, replicate, multiply and spread. And this particular coronavirus is very infectious and generates many variants, since it replicates very poorly.

By natural selection (Darwin), variants are self-selected that overcome artificial immunity (vaccination), natural immunity and cause reinfections. What we cannot predict yet is if the seventh or the eighth will be small waves or big waves.

By the way, our Pneumology team at La Princesa, together with Italian colleagues from the University of Milan, and based on the first omicron data from South Africa, has succeeded with a study on infections: on Monday, January 24, the Maximum of cases in Spain for this variant… and next Saturday, January 29, the maximum number of new hospitalizations will be reached.

The study was published in Archives of Bronchopulmonology of the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR). These mathematical models (figure 3), validated by external reviewers, must guide current and future Public Health decisions».

Figure 3

Lastly, Dr. Soriano. You have led a World Health Organization working group to define persistent covid, which has also been recently published in the journal The Lancet.

What should we know about the consequences of the virus in our body?

“Indeed, last year I had the privilege of being a senior consultant at WHO. Initially, I went to Geneva to do a modeling of COVID-19 in relation to influenza (Flurona), but this co-infection has not occurred at the expected levels.

So, I dedicated myself to updating the treatment guidelines for COVID-19 and putting order in the investigation of the sequelae after overcoming acute covid, now called Persistent COVID (Long COVID).

In December 2021 we publish in Lancet Infectious Diseases a first definition of Persistent COVID obtained by a Delphi consensus method with a broad panel of patients, their caregivers, and basic and clinical research experts from five continents.

The Delphi method is a structured communication technique, developed as a systematic and interactive consensus method, combining the opinions of patients, their clinicians, basic scientists, managers and other experts.

Having the same terminology and definition is a first step for dialogue between specialists and specialties, and progress in the management of Persistent COVID, as previously occurred in new diseases such as AIDS, fibromyalgia or postuci syndrome.

After overcoming acute COVID, one in six patients will have sequelae between three and twelve months after hospital discharge. There are already more than 200 symptoms and signs described, with enormous inter-individual variability. And seven potential mechanisms are studied.

Medical epidemiologist Joan Soriano

Doctor Joan B Soriano, expert epidemiologist in COVID-19

We describe in our study three main phenotypes of Persistent COVID: respiratory, based on shortness of breath, chest pain, and cough; fatigue with a constitutional picture, related to tiredness, muscle aches and permanent and intermittent fever; and cognitive, especially with a kind of brain fog.

Furthermore, these sequelae are interrelated and even vary from week to week in the same patient. In Spain alone, we estimate that there are between 400,000 and 800,000 people with Persistent COVID. We have much to investigate regarding the measurement and management of persistent COVID«, concludes the Dr. Joan B. Soriano Ortiz.

Quemados con pólvora, heridos con arma blanca y sospechas por Covid-19, saturaron área de urgencias en Pasto

Riñas, accidentes de tránsito, intoxicados por la ingesta excesiva de alcohol y drogas también colapsaron las áreas de urgencias en Pasto.

Noticias Pasto.

A través del reporte entregado por autoridades de salud en Pasto se estableció que durante este fin de año se saturó el área de urgencias del Centro de Salud de San Vicente y los Hospitales Civil y La Rosa.

Indicaron que el mayor número de casos está relacionado con lesionados con pólvora, heridos en distintas circunstancias, ingesta de licor  y pacientes con sospecha para Covid-19.

“Durante la noche del 31 de diciembre  y el primero de enero, en el Hospital La Rosa, se atendieron 19 casos; tres con amputación de los dedos de las manos y dos menores de edad, uno de ocho años residente en el barrio Chambù  y uno de 10 años de edad, oriundo de Venezuela, residente en el barrio Santa Clara”, indicaron.

Mientras que en urgencias del Hospital Civil atendieron siete casos de adultos con quemaduras de primer y segundo grado, entre ellos, un habitante de calle; al igual que en el Centro de Salud de San Vicente.

“En las tres unidades de salud, la atención se incrementó, especialmente los casos de lesionados con arma corto punzante, riñas, accidentes de tránsito y caídas de la propia altura; pacientes  con sospecha para COVID-19, en menor proporción, intoxicados por la ingesta de alcohol y drogas; adultos mayores con enfermedades y patologías de base”, sostuvieron

Entre tanto, la Gerente de Pasto Salud ESE, Ana Belén Arteaga dijo que frente al descontrol que se registró en la comunidad, con motivo de las festividades de fin y comienzo de año, se continúa trabajando para lograr la atención en salud de manera oportuna.

 

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Will COVID Mutate in Animals and Jump Back to Humans?

A new variant of the coronavirus found in white-tailed deer in Canada was later discovered in a person who lived nearby and had contact with the deer population, according to a recent study. The researchers say it’s possible the deer transmitted the virus to the human.

Emerging evidence that COVID-19 is gaining a foothold in wildlife could have negative long-term consequences for humans, according to Nükhet Varlik, associate professor of history at Rutgers University-Newark.

“Even if we managed to vaccinate the entire human population, the disease can still come back — from the animals back to us — which is, in fact, what happened with some of the other historical pandemics,” Varlik says. “So, in the long term, I don’t think COVID can be eradicated, to be honest.”

In September 2021, zoo officials said gorillas at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, seen here on Sept. 14, 2021, contracted the coronavirus from a zoo staff worker.

Six out of every 10 infectious diseases in people are zoonotic, meaning they pass between species, from animals to humans.
Examples of zoonotic viruses include the flu, West Nile virus, the plague, rabies and Lyme disease.

The coronavirus outbreak has been linked to a market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were slaughtered on site. And although the virus is classified as zoonotic, no animal reservoir of the disease has been found.

Any new COVID-19 variant that animals might pass back to humans has the potential to mutate into something totally new.

“It’s definitely going to evolve differently in an animal than it will in a human,” says Cody Warren, a virologist and immunologist who is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Now we have what we’re considering a human virus trying to evolve to grow in an animal, and so, it’s going to undergo its own unique evolutionary trajectory in that animal.”

Multiple COVID-19 variants such as delta and omicron have been found in humans, and scientists cannot rule out the possibility that some variants came from animals.

“Most of the attention and resources are focusing on, ‘How do we test humans?’ and ‘How do we coordinate hospital beds?’” says Suresh Kuchipudi, a professor and chair of emerging infectious diseases at Pennsylvania State University. “But, in this process, we haven’t really been looking at animals. …That’s why we have a lot of missing links to trace back the origins of these viruses. So, it may be that we haven’t been looking into some animal species in some part of the world where this evolution largely may have happened. We have lots of gaps in connecting the dots.”

Guests drive their vehicles through the Phoenix Zoo, May 9, 2020, in Arizona.

Kuchipudi, a veterinary virologist, co-authored a separate study that found evidence of COVID-19 in white-tailed deer in Staten Island, New York. Researchers tested the animals between December 12, 2021, and January 31, 2022, and found COVID-19 antibodies in 19 of the 131 animals sampled.

When a virus goes from humans back into animals, the process is referred to as spillback.

“And what I think is most concerning about that is that it gives new opportunities for the virus to evolve in new, unique and innovative ways,” says Warren. “And that virus could potentially evolve in a way and then jump back into humans and spread again throughout the human population as a new disease.”

Kuchipudi emphasizes the need to begin monitoring high-risk animals where the force of infection is high and based on their frequent exposure to humans in order to stop, or at least minimize, transmissions from animals to humans.

“Then we can track down what is happening in terms of the virus evolution. But will we also be able to determine what are the routes through which this exposure has happened? Is it through wastewater or leftover food?” says Kuchipudi. “Although we found deer have the virus, it is not entirely clear how the free-living deer, that don’t really come close to humans typically, are picking up the infection.”

Right now, there is no coordinated, concerted effort nationally or internationally to address the problem of COVID-19 in animals, according to Kuchipudi. But he is hopeful that is changing. The American Rescue Plan provides $300 million for the monitoring and surveillance of animals believed susceptible to COVID-19.

“I see a lot of momentum happening,” Kuchipudi says. “A lot of relevant people recognize this is a problem. And I think most federal and state agencies are very seriously discussing looking into this.”

Descubiertos factores epigenéticos asociados a un síndrome grave en COVID-19 infantil

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• junio 27, 2022

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• El Síndrome Inflamatorio Multisistémico en Niños (MISC) está relacionado con una desregulación de un grupo de genes que controlan el sistema inmune.
• El estudio demuestra la firma epigenética del MISC y del síndrome Kawasaki, dos condiciones muy similares caracterizadas por la hiperactivación inmune.
• Conocer esta firma epigenética puede ayudar en el futuro a anticipar, diagnosticar y tratar a niños y niñas con MISC y potencialmente a aquellos afectados por el síndrome Kawasaki.

Investigadores del grupo de Epigenética del Cáncer del Dr. Manel Esteller del Instituto de Investigación contra la Leucemia Josep Carreras y la Dra. Aurora Pujol, del Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL), han identificado una firma epigenética asociada al desarrollo del Síndrome Inflamatorio Multisistémico en Niños (MISC) que aparece tras la infección del virus SARS-CoV-2. La firma ha sido llamada EPIMISC, siguiendo la línea de los estudios previos sobre la epigenética del COVID-19 realizados por el mismo equipo.

La infección por el virus SARS-CoV-2 y el desarrollo de la enfermedad COVID-19 han supuesto un grave problema de salud, social y económico en los dos últimos años. La masiva implementación de vacunas ha permitido cierta recuperación de la normalidad, pero aún quedan muchas preguntas sin contestar. Uno de los enigmas de la infección por el virus ha sido la notable resistencia de los niños a padecer una COVID-19 grave. Sin embargo, un pequeño porcentaje de la población pediátrica afectada por el virus experimentó una patología grave denominada Síndrome Inflamatorio Multisistémico en Niños (MISC), también conocida como Síndrome Inflamatorio Multisistémico Pediátrico (PIMS), que requiere el ingreso en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI) en el 60% de los casos.

En el MISC diferentes partes del cuerpo pueden inflamarse, entre ellas el corazón, los pulmones, los riñones, el cerebro, la piel, los ojos o los órganos gastrointestinales. Se desconocen los factores asociados a la aparición de MISC más allá de la presencia del virus.

En un artículo que fue publicado recientemente en EClinicalMedicine, la revista hermana de The Lancet para hallazgos clínicos de comunicación rápida, por el grupo del Dr. Manel Esteller, Director del Instituto de Investigación contra la Leucemia Josep Carreras (IJC), profesor de Investigación ICREA y catedrático de Genética en la Universidad de Barcelona y la Dra. Aurora Pujol, también profesora ICREA, jefa del Grupo de Enfermedades Neurometabólicas del Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL) y miembro de la Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), demuestra que existen cambios epigenéticos ligados al desencadenamiento de MISC, al menos en el grupo de la cohorte estudiado.

"La enfermedad COVID-19 en adultos se caracteriza por la dificultad en respirar, mientras que este síndrome infrecuente asociado al mismo virus en niños afecta a muchos más órganos y puede tener consecuencias severas. Como se desconocían las bases del mismo, decididimos comparar el epigenoma de niños sanos, niños con COVID-19 sin MISC y niños con COVID-19 que experimentaron MISC", explica Dr. Esteller en relación con el artículo de la revista EClinicalMedicine y añade «encontramos que el MISC se caracteriza por una desregulación específica de la programación celular epigenética que conduce a un cuadro de hiperinflamación que puede dañar a los tejidos".

Los resultados del estudio, firmado por la Dra. Verónica Dávalos y Carlos A. García-Prieto, mostraron que había genes específicos afectados en los pacientes, como los asociados a la activación de los linfocitos T, las células natural killer, el reconocimiento de antígenos y la coagulación. Este patrón de desregulación epigenética también se observó en el síndrome de Kawasaki, otra enfermedad inflamatoria que alcanzó su punto álgido en 2009 y que posiblemente esté relacionada con la infección por el virus de la gripe A H1N1.

Curiosamente, dos de los 33 eventos de metilación del ADN que definen la firma EPIMISC son también característicos en adultos sin comorbilidades que desarrollan la enfermedad grave de COVID-19, como se definió previamente en la firma EPICOVID encontrada por el mismo equipo el año pasado. Este hecho confirma que ambos procesos, el MISC en niños y el Síndrome de dificultad respiratoria aguda en adultos, son complicaciones inflamatorias posinfecciosas y podrían ser tratadas de forma diferente a la fase inicial de la infección viral. En este sentido, los investigadores plantean la hipótesis de que la inhibición farmacológica del gen CUL2, un mediador de la inflamación, podría ser útil para los pacientes con MISC, ya que se sabe que protege contra las respuestas hiperinflamatorias.

Se trata de una característica inusual y la Dra. Pujol señala que «es interesante ver que dos trastornos que presentan manifestaciones clínicas similares, el MISC y el Kawasaki, también comparten una firma epigenética común, que es diferente a la firma epigenética causada por otros virus, incluido el VIH». En la misma línea, el Dr. Esteller concluye que "parece que, en ambos síndromes, MISC y Kawasaki, hay una reacción exagerada del sistema inmune de los niños frente a una agresión vírica. Conocer los mecanismos de ambas enfermedades nos dará mejores herramientas para diagnosticarlas y tratarlas".

Artículo de Referencia:

Davalos V, García-Prieto CA, Ferrer G, Aguilera-Albesa S, Valencia-Ramos J, Rodríguez-Palmero A, Ruiz M, Planas-Serra L, Jordan I, Alegría I, Flores-Pérez P, Cantarín V, Fumadó V, Viadero MT, Rodrigo C, Méndez-Hernández M, López-Granados E, Colobran R, Rivière JG, Soler-Palacín P, Pujol A, Esteller M. Epigenetic Profiling Linked to Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C): A Multicenter, Retrospective Study. EClinicalMedicine, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101515, 2022.

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