Eduardo López, epidemiologist: “We are not facing an epidemic of monkeys”

2024-08-20 16:29:18

physician, Eduardo Lopezshowed that dengue “has gone viral” and said how the “Wolbachia Project” could help eradicate the disease:What vaccination does is provide individual protection, but to eradicate the disease, the mosquito must be eradicated.” On the other hand, it explains why the coronavirus vaccine greatly promotes the vaccine movement. “At the beginning of the year, and“20% of doctors have not been vaccinated against COVID,” stand out Modo Fontevecchiaby Net TV, Radio Profile (AM 1190) y Radio Amadeus (FM 91.1).

Eduardo López is a pediatrician, epidemiologist and is one of the members of the group of experts who advise the government during the coronavirus pandemic. Monkeypox has begun to generate international concern due to its rapid spread and prevalence.

What is the real situation about how big, how big and how big a monkey can be in Argentina?

The authorities don’t like this

Professional and critical journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. This is the reason why he is happy with those who believe that they are the owners of the truth.

Today, worldwide, where the outbreak started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is now limited to southwest Africa, sub-Saharan Africa. We will say that it is a major outbreak, with more than 14,000 cases, and it has two or three characteristics that have been made. The World Health Organization has issued this global alert.

The first thing is that it affects children and young people, while it is a disease of adults, especially men. The second point is that there is a difference, we doctors call it clade, which is 1B, which has a lot. The greater the transmission capacity, the more virulent and can cause greater mortality.

Monkeypox: the first five cases have been confirmed in Argentina

And the third point is that appeared within sub-Saharan Africa in countries that did not have it before. These are three cases. Now, Argentina is circulating today the difference we have in 2022, which is clade 2, which is more benign and less.

To give us an idea, in 2022 just over 1,000 cases, in 2023 just over 100, and in 2024 we reach 8 cases. It means that for now, in Argentina we have to be aware , but it was not a popular outbreak of this, nor an epidemic outbreak.

We have been decreasing, but as this strain with great influence and weakness appears, You have to be more aware. Now, look for comparison, in the last two and a half years there were more than 100,000 cases of tuberculosis. If you analyze millions of cases of COVID in two years, one can quickly realize that they are two diseases with different transmission.

Some visible effects of monkeypox.

And another fact that I think is interesting is that individuals who have received the smallpox vaccine, which is no longer used because smallpox has been eradicated from the world, are protected between 75% and 85%. These are data provided by the WHO and a Spanish study.

This means they are available Individuals over the age of 45 and 50 will have the best protection. Now, you have to be careful because It is a disease that can spread through many body fluidseither through blood, semen, gastrointestinal tract and eye tissues.

Also, skin lesions are very contagious because they have viruses inside, so if someone breaks a vesicle and rests it on a paper or wipes it with a towel, the virus is there and can infect others, and that this is increasing when people unfortunately have to wait.

Monkeypox: Health controls are being strengthened at airports in Argentina

And another thing is that The third movement with the least effect is air movement. Today in Argentina, We are not facing a monkey epidemic.

Indeed borders, ports and airports must be monitored, not even intermediate points, but departure point airports. The thing is that many people leave Africa and stay in Europe, and since the fall period is 7 to 14 days and up to 21 days, an individual can arrive normally and get infected while in Argentina.

What is the status of monkeys in neighboring countries? Is there any connection with ecology, I say, as well as a connection with Africa because of latitude?

No, this is human transmission, it is suggested that the reservoirs may be mice, rats or even squirrels, but it does not have a large effect of human-to-human transmission through intimate contact. From our neighboring countries, The only country that has a large exchange with Africa is Brazil because there are two countries, like Angola and Mozambique, that speak Portuguese, and therefore I think it is a border that should be carefully monitored compared to others.

Milei’s health policy under the microscope

Other countries like ours, they don’t have Monkeypox. So the key here is the epidemiological interview and noting that the individual who has been in those countries in contact with suspects, with high fever, headache, muscle pain and large antibodiesyou should contact health centers early because they are individuals that have to be isolated and more controlled.

How will the situation with dengue continue in Argentina?

Elizabeth pointed out (EP): Yesterday the Minister of Health, Nicolás Kreplak, warned that there is no shortage of policies, campaigns and measures to somehow prevent the worsening of the dengue epidemic for the coming summer. What do you notice about this?

I’ve been saying this for years, dengue has become public. It means that if I do campaigns in the north of Argentina, the center of Argentina will be left without adequate territory. For example, last year Cordoba had more than 132,000 cases. The province of Buenos Aires has a large number of cases, of the 111,000 cases it has, most are in three districts.

This means that there is a process, we would say, that has to be perfect in this aspect, in which the responsibilities belong to all health providers, both the Ministry of National Health and the institutions of the region each.

Today there is a targeted vaccination campaign, but the targeted vaccination campaign will be in fact in the north and among young people and young people, between the ages of 14 and 19. Now, what the vaccine does is provide protection to each individual, but it does not kill destroy the disease, because to get rid of the disease you have to get rid of the mosquito. And that’s not even happening in Argentina at the international level, I’m not just talking about a ministry anymore.

There is growing concern about the situation of dengue, a disease associated with Aedes aegypti.

Two areas of Patagonia and Cuyo have few cases, but other areas are at risk. And there is a project that many countries have done called The Wolbachia Projectwhich is a bacterium that only affects insects. The mosquitoes are then bred with Wolbachia, which does not kill the mosquito itself, but the male mosquito is sterile. Then, when copulating, the female removes the anembryonic eggs,

And when you remove the anembryonic eggs, you have two results. The first time is that the density of the mosquito population drops, because it does not reproduce. And the second place, because the worms go to the place of the fetus. If there is no embryo, the virus will disappear.

This has been very successful by Colombia, Mexico, Singapore and some states in Brazil. and I think this It is a mosquito repellent technique. It is mandatory together with vaccination but If we don’t eradicate the mosquito, we will continue to have dengue outbreaks.

The anti-vaccination movement in Argentina

Are you afraid that the whole fight against the coronavirus, including the great isolation, will be somehow damaged by the accusations received by Alberto Fernández?

It is dangerous and I will explain why. Because in practice today no one is vaccinated for COVID. In February of this year, we conducted a survey asking doctors what they thought about the COVID vaccine. The first surprise is that 20% of doctors have not been vaccinated against COVID.

After receiving side effects, AstraZeneca withdrew its Covid-19 vaccine worldwide

And it also seems to me, if I understand correctly, that there is a growing issue of anti-immune drugs. Can it be?

I think that The COVID vaccine gives us the appearance of a new anti-vaccine group. However, with that study we did, we found that the Argentine population, around 90%, also considered that vaccines are safe, important and they protect. This means that the anti-vaccination groups are strong but not strong.

Now, Argentina has a very difficult problem, I wonder if one day we can expand it. I mean the vaccine coverage is collapsing and we’re not doing much to be proactive in going to vaccine.

TO VFT