A doctor from Bosnia produces tests for the coronavirus in Portugal

It is a huge job and very demanding.

The curve of people suffering from the coronavirus in our country does not have an upward trajectory, some banning measures have been repealed, and for others, this possibility is being considered - it is getting better - but let's remain vigilant because what will happen depends largely on us.

Adequate public information about all aspects of this problem is still necessary, according to the Bosnian-Herzegovina-American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From the very beginning, this academy has been actively involved in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing all its eminent experts who can use their knowledge and experience to help combat the pandemic of this dangerous virus. Now they have started a series of educational videos, "60 Seconds About Corona," which aim to explain in an interesting and accessible way to the wider BiH and the public basic scientific concepts, facts, and discoveries related to the coronavirus. The idea is also to select from the sea of information that surrounds us what is factually supported and relevant.

In "Dobar dan BiH," we spoke with a member of this academy, a Doctor of Molecular Biology, from Saraj with an address in Lisbon, Doctor Ljiljana Đukanović.

You, in cooperation with your colleagues, designed and launched this series of educational videos "60 seconds about Corona". In the announcement, I briefly explained what it was about, but you can certainly tell us a lot more. What are you talking about in these videos? How do you educate people, what information do you present to them?

• The goal is to explain scientific terms related to the coronavirus to the public. An interesting aspect is that each video is made by a different expert. There are 20 different experts, both from BiH and the diaspora. Videos are made by a group of very smart people.
  
  

You are a doctor of molecular biology, what can you tell us about this virus, and from the aspect of your profession? What kind of virus is this? And why does it attack the lungs, you talked about that in one of the videos.

• SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The virus loves the respiratory system, ie the lungs. In my video, I try to explain what it is specifically. In the course of the disease, other organs can also be damaged, and the first infection occurs in the lungs, and not elsewhere.

In an informal conversation, you told me that you work in a company that has currently reoriented its production and now you work, that is, produce tests for the coronavirus. What is the primary business of the company that made you switch to test production? How are these tests made?

• By the way, I work for a biotech company. When the crisis started, we could not continue working normally, so we reoriented. Now we make tests, they are standard tests used by most of the world. It is a huge job, which requires a lot of organization. We work in the Mexican market, and it involves a lot of bureaucracy.
  
  

Are they error-prone, how reliable are they?

• These tests are standard and the most reliable currently on the market. They are precise but not the most practical, as they require a certain amount of time. For a situation like this, that impracticality is not good.

There was a lot of talk about the mutating of the coronavirus, we know that this is not unusual for viruses. What is the situation with the coronavirus? Can this virus mutate, and what could that eventual mutation cause? Could she harm the virus itself instead of the human?

• Virus mutation is the most normal phenomenon; however, most of these mutations are neutral and have no effect on the type of virus. In order for the virus to mutate, multiple mutations must occur at the same time. They recently announced that the common cold virus mutates more often than the coronavirus. These mutations can harm the virus itself, and this shows that they are spontaneous.

The imminent abolition of measures is also mentioned. What is the thing that you would keep and eventually abolish?

• The lifting of measures will have to be very gradual and each country will have to have its strategy.