The United States President-elect Joe Biden announced the creation of a 13-person committee to organize the fight against Covid-19 in the country. And one of these people is the Brazilian Luciana Borio, well known for her intense work on infectious diseases.
"I dedicated my career to preparing for epidemics," said Borio in a 2015 lecture. The doctor worked in the administrations of George W. Bush (2001-2009), Barack Obama (2009-2017), and Donald Trump.
In fact, she coordinated the American response to the recent epidemic in Ebola Africa, a serious disease with a high lethality rate, which can reach more than 50% under certain conditions. For comparison, Covid-19's latest lethality rate is close to 2.5%, considering data from around the world. Among Borio's duties was the development of protocols for testing new drugs.
Another front on which the doctor worked was in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, that is, microbes' ability to survive even when exposed to high amounts of antibiotic drugs. The emergence of so-called superbugs is one of the most important public health threats of the 21st century.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon