Pardis Sabeti: How we'll fight the next deadly virus
Pardis Sabeti: Cómo combatir el próxima virus mortal
Pardis Sabeti investigates the genomes of microbes, including the Ebola virus, to help understand how to slow them. Full bio
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de Kenema, en Sierra Leona,
of Kenema, Sierra Leone
extraordinary places on earth.
más extraordinarios del planeta.
of nurses, physicians and scientists
de enfermeras, médicos y científicos
para la humanidad desde hace años:
to humanity for years:
parecido al del Ébola.
and can often be fatal.
y, a menudo, es mortal.
they risk their lives every day
arriesgan sus vidas todos los días
in their communities,
en sus comunidades,
que aprendí de ellos
I learned about them
out there many years ago
hace muchos años
on the front lines -- by singing.
al frente de batalla cantando.
and they show their joy.
and they've visited me,
y cuando me visitan,
just there to pursue science together;
solo para dedicarnos a la ciencia.
becomes extremely important,
se vuelve extremadamente importante,
cuando las cosas empiezan a cambiar.
in March of 2014,
was declared in Guinea.
el brote de Ébola en Guinea.
en África occidental,
of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Sierra Leona y Liberia.
frightening for us all.
más extendidos de lo pensado,
widespread than thought,
one day come to Kenema.
podría llegar a Kenema.
immediately went out
se fueron a unirse
and his team there,
to have sensitive molecular tests
tener pruebas moleculares sensibles
across the border
si cruzaba la frontera
of capacity for Lassa virus,
esto para el virus de Lassa,
the tools and place to survey for Ebola.
y el lugar para explorar el Ébola.
into the maternity ward at the hospital,
registró en la maternidad en el hospital,
those important molecular tests
pruebas moleculares
confirmed case of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
confirmado de Ébola en Sierra Leona.
work that was done.
el caso de inmediato,
the case immediately,
to follow what was going on.
de los contactos.
been breeding for months.
eclipsed all previous outbreaks.
todos los brotes anteriores.
not as that singular case,
como un caso en particular,
con la comunidad internacional,
with the international community,
to begin to deal with the cases,
para hacer frente a los casos,
all coming to Kenema,
todos procedentes de Kenema,
that could deal with this.
que podría hacer frente a esto.
trying to do everything we could,
tratando de hacer todo lo posible,
trying to get attention,
tratando de llamar la atención,
from a patient's blood to detect Ebola,
de un paciente para detectar el Ébola,
put in a chemical and deactivate it,
ponerlo en un químico y desactivarlo,
and ship it across the ocean,
enviarlo a través del océano,
donde trabaja mi equipo.
doing shift work, day after day,
haciendo turnos, día tras día,
of the Ebola virus.
99 genomas del Ébola.
of a virus is the blueprint.
el modelo de un genoma de un virus.
are simple and they're powerful.
son simples y contundentes.
estos 99 virus diferentes,
these 99 different viruses,
compared to three genomes
con los tres genomas
published from Guinea,
habían publicado previamente
emerged in Guinea months before,
surgió en Guinea meses antes,
from human to human.
de persona a persona.
how to intervene,
el rastreo de contactos.
is contact tracing.
was moving between humans,
el virus se movía entre los humanos,
are so important,
son muy importantes,
sequence, fundamentally --
del genoma, fundamentalmente,
would need to respond,
de salud deben responder,
that they were doing.
todo lo que estaban haciendo.
el lugar donde estaba en ese momento,
the position I was in at that point
in a silo for many, many months,
encerrada durante muchos meses,
con cuidado, lentamente,
gone through a few back-and-forths,
su publicación, pasando por revisiones
might release that data.
se publica, se liberan esos datos.
funciona el status quo.
at this point, right?
en ese momento, ¿verdad?
that what we needed is help,
que necesitábamos ayuda,
came off the machines,
de las máquinas,
and said, "Help us."
from people all over,
con gente de todo el mundo,
out there and released.
al ver los datos ahí publicados.
virólogos del mundo
viral trackers in the world
de nuestra comunidad.
in this virtual way,
de esta manera virtual,
minute by minute,
minuto a minuto el virus,
that we can form communities like that.
formar comunidades como esas.
started to expand globally,
a expandirse a nivel internacional,
to participate, to engage.
comprometerse.
existente es simplemente increíble
out there is just amazing,
of being frightened of each other,
de asustarse el uno del otro,
and let's make this happen."
that all of us are using,
los datos que todos usamos
to do what we need to do.
limitados para hacer nuestro deber.
get missed when that happens.
cuando esto sucede.
de la epidemia de Kenema,
of the epidemic from Kenema,
from patients,
de los pacientes,
publicly available to the world.
a disposición pública al mundo.
that you could take those 106 records,
que con base en esos 106 registros,
the prognosis for Ebola patients
para predecir el pronóstico
casi con un 100 % de exactitud.
that could release that,
que podíamos lanzar
to health-care workers in the field.
la tengan a su disposición.
to make it powerful,
para que sea potente,
to release that.
más datos para lanzar eso,
cannot accept that.
no pueden aceptarlo.
many health-care workers,
muchos trabajadores de salud,
Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi,
Alex, Moigboi,
and Mohamed Fullah.
y Mohamed Fullah.
of many health-care workers
trabajadores de salud
y mientras todos trabajábamos,
and while we all worked,
las amenazas de la humanidad,
and distraction and division.
la distracción y la división.
and we fight amongst ourselves,
entre nosotros y nos peleamos
las amenazas de la humanidad,
we're actually all the same.
nos concierne a todos.
could soon be on ours.
pronto podría estar en la nuestra.
with the same vulnerabilities,
con las mismas vulnerabilidades,
the same fears, the same hopes,
mismos miedos, mismas esperanzas,
leyó un libro sobre Sierra Leona,
was reading a book about Sierra Leone,
where we work in Sierra Leone,
que trabajamos en Sierra Leona,
for "clear like a river, translucent
para "clara como un río, translúcido,
we'd always felt
siempre sentimos eso
in Kenema where we worked,
en Kenema donde trabajamos,
and we had to work together.
compartiendo y colaborando.
of ourselves and others --
a nosotros mismos y a los demás
when an outbreak happens,
cuando ocurre un brote,
outbreak of Ebola,
el primer brote de Ébola,
out there that are lying in wait,
por ahí al acecho,
it could start there.
de millones, podría empezar allí.
that's transmitted through the air.
se transmite a través del aire.
intencionadamente.
disseminated intentionally.
I understand that,
and this experience shows us,
y esta experiencia nos muestra,
and we have the capacity
la tecnología y la capacidad
the upper hand over viruses.
sacar ventaja a los virus.
si lo hacemos juntos
their lives on the front lines
sacrificaron sus vidas en el frente
of hearts and minds
trabajando en unidad.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pardis Sabeti - Computational geneticistPardis Sabeti investigates the genomes of microbes, including the Ebola virus, to help understand how to slow them.
Why you should listen
Pardis Sabeti develops algorithms to detect the genetic signatures of adaption in humans and the microbial organisms that infect humans. Among her lab’s key research areas: examining the genetic factors that drive disease susceptibility to Ebola and Lassa hemorrhagic fever, and investigating the genomes of microbes, including Lassa virus, Ebola virus, Plasmodium falciparum malaria, Vibrio cholera and Mycobacterioum tuberculosis, to help find cures.
She's based at the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health. Sabeti is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and was named a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2014 as one of the Ebola fighters.Pardis Sabeti | Speaker | TED.com