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Manuel Linares explains the diseases that exist in the world in the UAB Planet Cycle.

Manuel Linares, doctor and specialist in Microbiology and Parasitology, took part in the fifteenth session of the Planeta UAB lecture series, an initiative of the UAB Communication and Education Office aimed at students of its master’s degrees.

This cycle of conferences is part of the project “Planet UAB: The journey to the other – equals in differences” organised by the UAB Cabinet during the academic year 2020-2021, with the support of the Fons de Solidaritat of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which organised a series of activities and awareness-raising actions based on the concept of the UAB campus as a “planet” and which dealt with major issues such as the culture of peace, sustainability, the environment and interculturality, among others.

Students of the Master’s in Travel Journalism, the Master’s in Environmental Communication and the Master’s in Communication and Education participated in this fifteenth session with Manuel Linares, entitled ‘Diseases of the world‘. The journalist explained to the students the geography of the journey of various diseases, stressing the importance of communicating the existence of diseases such as Dengue, Malaria and Zika. The specialist in Microbiology showed the students the ‘IATI Report on the 10 diseases that could threaten post-covid tourism’, presented in Alcañiz at the 1st Ibero-American Meeting ‘Travel, communication and tourism. Challenges of a new era’ and gave some keys on how to communicate about health and diseases. Linares stressed the need for communicators to use a series of reliable sources, a tone far removed from sensationalism and alarmism, to use available resources and to generate alliances with scientific, social and political sectors. He also addressed the issue of Fake News and ‘Infodemia’, one of the great challenges currently facing health communication.

Manuel Linares is president of the IO Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the study and control of infectious diseases in the world, emerging zoonoses and tropical and traveller’s medicine. He holds a degree in Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid. Specialist in Microbiology and Parasitology and in Family and Community Medicine. Master’s degree in Tropical Medicine and International Health from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.