ISCIII

Health Institute Carlos III

Information
Avenida Monforte de Lemos, 5. 28029, Madrid.

pollution, covid-19, rare diseases, epidemiology, immunology, microbiology, AIDS / HIV
Contact
José A. Plaza
Head of Communications
ja.plaza@isciii.es
918227196 / 669187384

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SMC participants

Director of the National Centre for Tropical Medicine (CNMT) at the Carlos III Health Institute

PhD in Pharmacy, Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Navarra, member of the CIBER Physiopathology of Obesity, Carlos III Health Institute and IDISNA (Navarra)

Head of the Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Surveillance Group of the National Epidemiology Centre.

Researcher at the Reference and Research Laboratory in Mycology, National Microbiology Centre, Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Senior Scientist at the Health Institute Carlos III

Researcher in social epidemiology, public health and biostatistics 

Researcher with a PhD employed at the National Epidemiology Centre of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII)

Senior scientist at the Carlos III Health Institute

Senior Scientist at the Special Pathogens Research and Reference Laboratory of the National Microbiology Centre of the Carlos III Health Institute

Director and Research Scientist at the Institute for Rare Diseases Research (IIER), Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII)

 

Contents related to this centre
Los expertos insisten en que la mejor recomendación es el consumo cero de alcohol. / Pixabay

"The level of alcohol consumption that does not harm health is zero," says a review of dozens of studies conducted in recent years on the effect of light drinking. The 20 or so authors of the paper, and other experts, insist that "alcohol is carcinogenic from the first drink". In their view, this message should be conveyed more clearly to the public.

 

SARS-CoV-2

The UK Health Security Agency published in its latest report on 25 March the detection of three recombinant forms of omicron, called XE, XD and XF. The WHO mentions them in its 29 March report, noting that the possibility that XE is more transmissible than BA.2 still requires further study.

vaccine

In Spain, since 13 January, the booster vaccination against covid-19 has been recommended for the general adult population. 78.8 % of those over 50 and 88.9 % of those over 60 have already had it, said the Minister of Health yesterday. If those who are missing have doubts, here we try to solve them.

Year-end

The first solid work on the ability of vaccines to stop infection with the omicron variant, which has just been published, reinforces the need for a third dose. Experts recall, however, that the aim of vaccines was never to stop infection, but to prevent severe disease. We summarize what is known so far about it.

Misinformation

A survey conducted by the COSMO-Spain team to find out the reasons why some people have not yet been vaccinated showed that most of them fear that vaccines are unsafe and their side effects. These results highlight the importance of rigorous communication of drugs that are considered safe and effective by all studies and agencies.

vaccine

In the last few days, data, preprints, press releases and even graphs have started to arrive via social media showing how neutralising antibodies against the omicron variant behave. These studies are preliminary and we will have to wait and see how these lab data translate into the real world.

PCR

A new variant of the coronavirus causing COVID-19 has been identified in South Africa, with numerous mutations present in other variants, including Delta. Variant B.1.1.529, as it is now called, appears to be spreading rapidly in South Africa. Attached is the rapid reaction of three Spanish researchers with expertise in genomic surveillance.

Vaccine

A study of more than 700,000 people in Sweden analysed the effectiveness of the heterologous schedule, combining the AstraZeneca vaccine with another dose of a messenger RNA vaccine, with the traditional homologous schedule, consisting of two doses of AstraZeneca. The results showed increased protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection when two different vaccines were combined.