DrLaura Marcela Aguirre

MD (2022), Universidad del Valle - Colombia. Clinical and communitary research fellow at CIDEIM.
I am a medical doctor graduated in 2022, with particular interest in public health and epidemiology, tropical infectious diseases, mental health and medical humanities. My career in research began in the early years of university as a member of the Association of Medical Students' Scientific Societies of Colombia and the International Federation of Medical Students' Association (IFMSA). As a medical student I participated in the Epidemiology and Population Health Group of the Universidad del Valle, and contributed to the study of the Network of Emerging and Reemerging Neuroviruses in the Americas (NEAS). I carried out exchanges in Mexico, Germany and Argentina in the areas of internal medicine, research in anesthesiology and pediatrics, respectively. In addition, I made an infectology clinical case presentation (CCI Panama 2015) and a poster presentation (ECCMID Amsterdam 2016). I belonged to the seedbed of the Latin American Lymphoma Study Group and participated in two studies in Adult T-Cell Lymphoma Leukemia. During my last year of medical school (internship), I completed the first semester of my master's degree in epidemiology.

I am currently working as a clinician and clinical and community research fellow in the area of leishmaniasis at CIDEIM, where I also support projects in the area of syphilis and other STIs coordinated by the University of Connectitude. I am developing an epidemiological profile of the malaria situation in a municipality in Colombia and I am a member of the youth advisory panel of The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health (2021-2024). I am also learning german (B1)

Last but not least I love creative writing and I think the narrative and literature could be tools for healing. My stories have been published in magazines and books.