Microbiology Coronavirus and Wuhan Pneumonia

Coronaviruses are one of the families of viruses responsible for colds and acute respiratory infections that have affected millions of people for thousands of years. Although they have been known since the 1960s, it is only at the beginning of this century that fatal outbreaks have occurred: SARS, MERS and, of course, the Wuhan coronavirus. In this article we focus on the latter, emphasizing its characteristics, how it develops, detects and treats the disease (COVID-19) that it produces and, in general, why it is different from the others.

Epidemiology Questions on the Frontier Is it possible to know the evolution of a pandemic? The case of COVID-19

The mathematics of contagion

In this article, the fundamentals of mathematical modelling applied to the study of pandemics are presented, taking as a guiding thread the simplest and most widely used model, the SIR model, which is now presented as an example in numerous texts on differential equations. Based on this model, we will introduce some variations that will allow us to apply it to real cases and increase its scope of application.

Fractal Kinetics of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The classic epidemiological approach in the study of a pandemic such as COVID-19 is to quantify the reproduction number of the disease and the infection time. However, this assumption leads to exponential growth and, despite the fact that in the indicated case the growth rate is high, it is found that it does not follow this pattern. This article notes growth as a power law, indicative of an underlying fractal, or a network of connections, between susceptible and infected individuals.

Forecasts for COVID-19 based on Artificial Intelligence

As an alternative to epidemiological models of COVID-19 transmission dynamics, the use of artificial intelligence-based methods is proposed for making real-time predictions about the extent and duration of the pandemic. To achieve this aim, a stacked and modified automatic encoder have been used to model transmission dynamics and applies to data provided by WHO, leading to predictions with errors of less than 3%.

Visual data analysis and simulation prediction for COVID-19

The epidemic of COVID-19 has become a global pandemic according to the WHO. China was initially the country most affected by the virus outbreak, which some experts date back to late November. On January 23, the Wuhan government recognized the severity of the epidemic and took the drastic step of shutting down all overseas transportation. This article attempts to answer several key questions: How did the virus spread from the epicenter of Wuhan city to the rest of the country? To what extent did the resolutions taken help control the situation? More importantly, is it possible to forecast the future development of the event under certain changes in conditions?

History of Science The fight against viruses and bacteria

Currently, a bloody fight is being waged against tiny enemies that have attacked human beings since the beginning of time: the war against pathogenic microorganisms. Taking advantage of the media noise that has originated a type of virus discovered a few decades ago, the Coronavirus, we will examine what our microscopic enemies are like, what the main advances in medicine have been, how hygiene and vaccines work, the success of antibiotics, the danger of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the current situation of medicine in the face of new diseases.

Virology Latent threats

Even in times when there is not a spreading epidemic, there is daily baseline viral activity with public health consequences. Some countries are more protected from outbreaks and transmission of these pathogens, but there is no country that can safely certify that it is free of them. Knowledge of the latent threats in the world is therefore crucial for any health system, as it provides clues as to how to react when an alarm is triggered. This article looks at some of the most active viruses in the world today, either because of their infection rate or because of their virulence and mortality.

Sociology Epidemics and pandemics: the media and coverage of socio-health emergencies

The media serves important social purposes, typically: to inform, entertain, educate and form opinion. Research has yielded different models that explain the media’s treatment of news, which vary depending on different factors. As a special type of function, we can identify the case in which the media should alert and inform contemporary societies about risks, especially about catastrophes and social-health emergencies. In this context, rigour and ethics should take precedence over any other consideration or alignment, whether ideological or entrepreneurial. What problems does the communication of emergencies and social-health risks pose in the information society?

History The Black Death and other historical pandemics

The existence of epidemics -even pandemics- throughout history has been intrinsic to the evolution of human beings. They have always coexisted with us as a species. In times when there were no medical advances and current health conditions, it was relatively common for the outbreak of a bacterium or virus to be lethal to hundreds of thousands of people and even entire populations. One example of this, which is undoubtedly paradigmatic, was the terrible black plague of the 14th century, although there were others throughout history which, due to their virulence or intensity, did not lag behind. They had consequences of such magnitude that, together with their terrifying lethality, they modified economic, political, social and cultural patterns that undoubtedly conditioned the course of history.