Brazilian scientist among world's 100 Most Influential People

The Times magazine's list of the 100 most influential people worldwide this year features two Brazilians—the world-famous footballer Neymar Jr. and epidemiologist doctor Celina Turchi, a 64-year-old Brazilian scientist who works as a guest researcher at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. They will be honored at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York today (April 25).

Nominated in the “Pioneers” category, Celina Turchi earned the distinction tahnks to her role in investigating microcephaly and its connection with Zika virus. She is credited with creating a network with about 30 experts in a range of fields and from several organizations, called the Microcephaly Epidemic Research Group (MERG). The researchers were able to identify the link between Zika virus and microcephaly within four months of studies, which began in January 2016.

At the end of last year, Celina Turchi was ranked among the top ten scientists of 2016 by Nature magazine, one of the world's leading science publications, for the same feat. Despite her scientific achievement, she describes herself simply as one “representative” of the trade, who continues to work looking for answers to the many questions that remain open about Zika virus and its effects.

“That's what I feel like—a representative of a group of Brazilian researchers and health professionals who have worked very hard since the beginning of the extraordinary events—I mean science-wise—that occurred in Brazil in the second half of 2015, which we continue to monitor now,” she said.

The researcher does not rule out the possibility of new Zika infections. She explained viral epidemics have increases followed by decreases in the number of cases, so post-epidemic decreases are expected.

She is convinced that the so-called arboviruses—including zika and dengue—became a threat in Brazilian cities “because of inequality, these huge gaps in our cities with islands of wealth surrounded by extreme poverty and dire housing, which creates favorable conditions for the breeding of vectors in urban areas.”

About the latest studies, Turchi said a group of researchers led by Dr. Ricardo Ximenes, a professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), is monitoring a large group of pregnant women to find out at what point of pregnancy an infection affects the baby the most.

Microcephalic and non-microcephalic children born to women infected during pregnancy are also being monitored to determine if they are affected in the long run.

These studies are being conducted by large international consortia including Zika Plan, made up by 25 universities and state-owned research institutions worldwide.

Translated by Mayra Borges