Covıd-19 and future pandemics to be discussed at CIU

Cyprus International University (CIU) Biotechnology Research Center (BRC) is organizing an event on Wednesday, June 21st on “Lessons Learned from Covid-19: Possibility of Future Pandemics” 

The event will be held on Wednesday, June 21st in the conference hall of CIU Çevik Uraz Center, and the speaker is Prof. Dr. İhsan Gürsel, the Director of Izmir Biomedicine and Genome (IBG) Center. 

CIU BRC Chief Advisor Prof. Dr. Mustafa Camgöz reminded that since the day the Covid-19 virus was first identified in an outbreak,  it has affected more than 767 million people leading to  7 million deaths.  Dr. Camgöz said, “The death rate could have been much higher had it not been for a few but successful and incredibly fast developed vaccines. Earlier this year, it was announced that Covid-19 is no longer a threat to human health, but the 'Long Covid' still remains a problem.

Noting that such a success is possible only with the efforts of hardworking scientists and financial investments in scientific research, Camgöz said, “Part of the strategy consists of a completely new approach. In other words, a key component of Covid-19 protein  are vaccines based on molecular (mRNA- messenger RiboNucleic Acid).”

Camgöz said that Prof. Dr. Gürsel is one of the key members of the task force leading the vaccine studies in Turkey, and added that Gürsel will talk about what lessons have been learned from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Stating that more pandemics are expected to occur in the future, Camgöz said, “In the period dating from 1940 to 2000, there had been a significant increase in the rate of epidemics that occurred every year. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA predicts that the probability of experiencing another pandemic  is very high. 

Camgöz also pointed out that everyone should be aware of the potential hazards  awaiting us, and concluded by saying, "We need to protect not only ourselves but our environment as well."