Latin American scientific findings about the coronavirus

With regard to the arduous research on COVID-19, there was no delay, as currently, brilliant Latin American scientists are actively working to achieve the detection, cure, and eradication of this deadly virus.

In an interview conducted by the BBC news network to the brilliant Colombian scientist Javier Jaimes, he said that he is currently carrying out studies for a possible vaccine against COVID 19, at Cornell University, located in New York, United States.

In this alma mater, the Latin American scientist works as a researcher in the area of immunology and microbiology, and is currently working hard on research about the coronavirus vaccine, through in vitro studies.

Much of the research carried out by Jaimes at this University is based on experiments with the protein, nucleic acid, and elements of COVID-19, but without coming into direct contact with the virus, that is, they are in vitro studies.

On the other hand, the chain Telemundo Noticias interviewed the Colombian scientist, and in said interview Jaimes clearly states that it has been verified through laboratory studies that the source of the virus would be through a bat, thus denying the famous myth that it escaped from a laboratory to be converted into a biological weapon. 

Also read: Coronavirus: natural origin or created in a laboratory?

In addition, the BBC chain reports that the scientist Javier Jaimes has expressed that the work is divided into 4 phases to carry out the COVID-19 vaccine tests; he also stated that the duration of these tests would be 18 months, since they must observe if it produces side effects on the human body.

And in the interview with the Telemundo network, the researcher ends by saying that the only way to protect ourselves from the spread of this deadly virus is confinement.

In the same line of action, the BBC News interviewed Researcher Irene Bosch, a Venezuelan scientist, a biologist, graduated from the Central University of Venezuela, and with a postgraduate degree at Harvard in tropical diseases, who has developed an immediate detection test of COVID-19. The news network states that these tests were designed by the company E25 Bio Operations in Boston, USA, of which the Venezuelan is the director and founder.

In this interview, the Venezuelan biologist said that the rapid detection test makes it easier for people who do or do not have the symptoms of the virus to know immediately whether or not they suffer from it. The researcher also explains that the sample from this test is taken in the nasopharynx with a swab, and then placed in a small device very similar to pregnancy tests. If the disease is positive, a red line will appear on the device as a sign of contagion. This immediate response process takes around 15 to 20 minutes.

 Bosh stated in the news portal Ámerica digital that the test has the same process as those used to detect contagious diseases such as Zika and Chikungunya, and that they will cost around 8 dollars, a little more than the tests for the diseases mentioned, due to the emergency in their prompt production.

To conclude, the scientist said in this interview that the companies hope to produce sufficient quantities so that 7 million tests can be performed per day.

Also read: 5 Latino leagues that switched to virtual soccer

Other scientific studies regarding COVID-19 are being carried out by the Mexican virologist and scientist, Marina Escalera-Zamudio, who is currently working in the Zoology unit of the University of Oxford, England. The current study by the Mexican virologist is focused on the spread of the virus in South America.

In the interview that BBC news would carry out with Zamudio, the researcher said that the studies she is currently running focus on observing how the virus spreads in the South American region before it can become an epidemiological outbreak.

The Mexican scientist also expressed in said interview that she is currently working with a team of researchers, in the preparation of various types of standardized protocols, thereby pursuing the genetic sequence of the virus in real-time, and for this reason Brazil and Mexico were the countries chosen for such study.

And with respect to this research and its importance, the virologist ends by expressing that they hope to prepare a map where the various relationships of descent of COVID-19 can be seen and with it be able to determine how this deadly virus is born and expands, in various populations worldwide.