Surrender, bacteria

Oriol Mitjà is a 37-year-old man born in Barcelona. An infectious disease physician and researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center promoted by the "la Caixa" Banking Foundation, he is based in Papua New Guinea to research and eradicate yaws, an unknown and forgotten problem in Europe. It is a contagious tropical disease with symptoms similar to leprosy, caused by Treponema pallidum, a spiral-shaped bacterium that, as soon as it touches the skin, penetrates the tissues like a corkscrew. At first, it only produces ulcers, but if left untreated, it eventually reaches the bone and deforms it, causing irreversible lameness. It occurs in countries with very high levels of poverty and lack of hygienic and sanitary measures.

Although a solution had existed since the 1950s (injections of penicillin crystals), it is very painful, children run away, and logistics are very complicated. In the new line of research Mitjà is involved in, they saw how azithromycin eliminated the bacteria in the laboratory and did not have many side effects. Something that worked very well in practice, as children can easily take it in a single pill that costs 50 cents, plus another 50 for distribution.

"If these kids are able to keep fighting and don't complain even with that ulcer that is deforming them, I'm not going to complain," declares Oriol Mitjà in this ALMA interview. "I keep going because I am convinced that what I am doing is right and it is worth continuing to fight for them."

Mitjà is undoubtedly 100% focused on eradicating this disease, thinking only of it to then continue fighting against other diseases of poverty.

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