Young but well prepared, Guillem Mas (Portocolom, 1995), postdoctoral researcher at the prestigious Pasteur Institute in Paris, speaks this Tuesday about the genetic perspective of the global evolution of the bubonic plague: From the epidemics of the past to the surveillance of the future, in a new scientific session of the Royal Academy of Medicine.
He works on a research project with the World Health Organization (WHO).
We are a research group within a network of laboratories located in different parts of the world, to investigate and confront the plague.
People talk about the plague as if it were something from the Middle Ages and not current.
Completely. The plague has disappeared from Europe but is famous in society due to the epidemics that occurred in the Middle Ages. In the 14th century between 30 and 50% of Europeans died from the plague. However, it later reached all parts of the world as a consequence of the migratory movement, especially after the industrial revolution.
Has the disease changed during these centuries?
It is the same pathogen and the same disease. Only today other aspects have been improved, such as control and hygiene that prevents the disease and we have access to effective antibiotics that can cure and prevent it in case of outbreaks. These types of community actions are definitive in the face of epidemic risks.
The plague is linked to poor countries but could it spread with mobility?
It is an important lesson that COVID has taught us in recent years. We have to monitor what happens thousands of kilometers from here because it can travel home in weeks, the plague is no exception. If those infected travel by plane to another country, they can import it.
Could there be easy transmission between humans?
There are two forms of transmission: from animals to humans, and from humans to humans who can develop a form of disease that reaches the lungs and can be transmitted through the air, similar to COVID.
And what are you studying with your project?
It is related to the epidemiological monitoring of the variants. All pathogens have variants, the plague too, and it is important to identify them, precisely when there are epidemics, to be able to discriminate the origin and find related cases or know if they share the origin of the contamination. The project characterizes the variants in the world, especially where the disease is endemic, and how they evolve.
Do plague antibiotics work on all strains?
They are still a good treatment, there is no variant that escapes you but that is why it is important to study them all. We are also exploring a vaccine. Our laboratory has been developing it for 20 years with very positive results, and now it is in a higher clinical phase, about to be tested on animals.
2023-12-04 23:29:01
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