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Biology Faculty Fight Pandemic in Latin America

Dr. Ana Longo (left) and Dr. José Miguel Ponciano (right)

Using their expertise in disease dynamics to educate audiences in Latin America, Biology professors José Miguel Ponciano and Ana Longo authored articles on the coronavirus pandemic in media outlets in Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

Dr. Ponciano led an article titled “Covid19: Origen, tendencias actuales y escenarios para Guatemala” for Plaza Pública, a digital investigative newspaper. This article reports Dr. Ponciano’s model predictions for the number of people that would likely become infected with COVID-19. Without interventions to prevent the spread, a total of 29,000 deaths were projected for urban areas across Guatemala, highlighting the importance taking proactive steps to limit transmission.

Dr. Longo also wrote an opinion piece titled “Un mundo, una salud” for El Nuevo Día, the newspaper with the highest circulation in Puerto Rico. She described the concept of One Health, a transdisciplinary framework that recognizes that human health is extrinsically linked to global biodiversity and ecosystem health. She focused on raising awareness about how our collective behaviors have an important effect on our ecosystems.

Drs. Longo and Ponciano note that many human diseases are zoonotic in origin and that we can expect an increased frequency of such diseases in the future with climate change and environmental degradation.

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