“When a woman is eliminated from the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), for me it is a gift, we have already given her more time to live,” said Eva Ramón Gallegos, a researcher who managed to eliminate the pathogen in the clinical phase in patients through photodynamic therapy.
For the biologist from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), obtaining these results in the first phase of the study allows her to get closer to fulfilling one of her dreams: to help.
In addition, she believes that the mother is the axis of the family and being left without her generates not only pain, but an irreparable fracture.
Originally from Oaxaca, Eva Ramón had her first excitement with science in her electricity workshop classes, which she took in high school, when her teacher spoke to her about atoms; later, her biology teacher at CBTIS expanded her interest.
“That (in high school) was where I realized that what I wanted was to set up my laboratory and return to my town and help people in some way,” She shared.
What caught her attention the most was cancer. She remembered the death of her great-aunt from the disease and the separation from her children when it happened; in addition, she realized that she needed to prepare herself more.
Through the master’s and doctoral degrees, she realized that there was a lot to investigate and that the laboratory in San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, had to wait.
For the professor, the advancement of women in her area is even, even in salary; however, inequality occurs when climbing higher grades or management positions.
“I have seen coworkers fall by the wayside in their professional development because they are left to care for their children. Even doctoral students who do not have childcare and cannot spend the time they want in the laboratory and advance at the same level as their colleagues,” she indicated.
“A lot of work must be done to raise awareness and educate society, because there are still comments like ‘that career is not for women’, or teachers who say ‘either you get married or you stay working’, when both things are not in conflict.
“There are certain traps to climb in the positions where they make you available to travel, when they know that if a woman is pregnant or has small children, well, she will not be able to do it; so, I think they do it on purpose. There are things that have to be worked on but in a comprehensive way,” she said.
Eva Ramón said that this education will make a change in the lives of girls in our country, because in many places customs and ways of living keep them away from learning.
“Yes, it is necessary to do constant campaigns, not only on Women’s Day or on Women and Girls in Science Day; a program must be made that permeates schools and give it a lot of promotion on radio, on television and for parents to see that their daughters can do anything, that You don’t need to be a man to have a career and that we are worth the same,” she said.
The biologist shared that she met a girl in Veracruz who was surprised that a woman was a doctor and especially that she was leading a project.
“At a conference in Veracruz there was a girl (…) who wanted to meet a woman who was a doctor. She thought I was very intelligent, or that I had something extraordinary. I spoke to her and told her that you are not born knowing, that you learn little by little. And she tells me: ‘But you lead a project and I have only seen that in men’,” she recalled.
So, there she realized the importance of getting close to other women and that girls see and say: ‘If she can, why can’t I?’.
“They should also realize that it is not easy, that everything is difficult, that you have to plan and work,” she concluded.
She studied Pharmaceutical Chemist Biologist at the Universidad Veracruzana
She has a Master’s degree in Science with a specialty in Cytopathology from the IPN
She has a Doctorate in Chemical Biological Sciences from the IPN
During her master’s and doctorate she worked at the same time to cover her expenses
In her adolescence she supported some nuns from her town, who helped homeless people and abused women.
HPV is a pathogen that is the main cause of cervical cancer.
In the study, the virus was completely eliminated in patients who do not have lesions.
In patients who have lesions, the removal of HPV is 85 percent.
The study is about to begin a second stage to achieve 100% suppression of the virus in all the possibilities that generate the infection.
Women who wish to can join through the National School of Biological Sciences of the IPN website.
The treatment will remain at the Polytechnic so that it is accessible to the public.
Source: heraldodemexico
