Inauguration of the International Congress on COVID-19
On April 13, the International COVID-19 Congress “One year later, what have we learned?” Was inaugurated, organized by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Azuay in order to provide more up-to-date and useful scientific information about this pandemic.
Francisco Salgado, Rector of the University, began this event with the memory of the words of the founder of the Faculty of Medicine, Edgar Rodas:
"Medicine is the wonderful possibility of converging the humanities and science, and I believe that this is the main message that we should take into account, because if the doctor only sees the disease and does not see the person, he cannot really overcome the pandemic. ”.
“There cannot be any parish, compound or community where we do not arrive with the vaccine because if those sectors do not recover, the country does not recover. And this has more to do with a profoundly humanistic vocation that, of course, has scientific and solid bases so that the vision of the human being can be combined with science ”, added Salgado.
Subsequently, Galo Duque, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, pointed out that “there is no better date on which Teacher's Day is celebrated in the country than to be inaugurating this event of how much we have learned and have been taught about this disease in this anus".
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization decreed that this disease constituted a pandemic. Duque highlighted that, as of April 12, there were 374 confirmed cases and 17.300 registered deaths in Ecuador.
“The past year has been a social experiment of radical change in the lives of all human beings and as the impact of it fades, we are sure that life as we knew it before will not return. Many changes will be definitive, giving rise to this concept of a new normal, ”said Duque.
He also assured that "in return, this world catastrophe has contributed to reflect on the construction of a fairer city, with greater social sensitivity in the construction of an alliance to confront it, combat it and I am sure, defeat it."
To end his speech, Duque explained that the themes of this congress are not only about medical treatments, but also, it addresses topics about mental health, primary care, nutrition, rehabilitation, focusing mainly on bioethics, violence and medical education during the pandemic. .
Juan Pablo Olguín, director of the Congress, explained that the Congress seeks to integrate all the sciences so that the medical staff is more humane and treats patients better.
"This medical meeting is in memory of several friends and colleagues who have lost their lives during this pandemic in our university community," he concluded.
UDA Correspondent
