Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Introduction: At the end of 2019, Wuhan, a city in China, reported the first cases of COVID-19, one of the biggest threats for global health in the past decades. Methods: Updated literature was reviewed, using key words in databases PUBMED and ScienceDirect. Results: COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, an emergent virus responsible of a pandemic that has rapidly spread around the world, including Honduras. Virus is transmitted mainly by droplets and aerosols. 81% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 are mild, with a global case fatality rate near 5%, affecting mostly elderly people, especially with underlying diseases. Clinical presentation includes fever, dry cough, fatigue and dyspnea. Case confirmation of COVID-19 is based on rRT-PCR from nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs. Currently, there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine. Drugs and treatments have been proposed for severe cases of the disease, based on preclinical and small clinical studies. Countries are taking radical measures for prevention, such as social isolation and quarantine, while scientists find an effective and safe vaccine against the virus. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic is still spreading, and several studies about the most effective prevention and treatment measures, are currently running. 

Introduction: There are micronutrients which function allows the normal development of biochemical processes related to the action of the immune system. Methods: A literature review was performed using vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, quercetin and sulforaphane as search keywords. Discussion: Vitamin C is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory playing a role in redox balance, playing a fundamental role in counteracting oxidative stress and mainly enhancing the function of neutrophils. It has been proposed that zinc reduces the risk of immune failure by enhancing the action of lymphocytes, especially CD4 T lymphocytes. Vitamin D generates a regulatory effect in the release of cytokines, antimicrobial peptides and anti-inflammatory action. The action of NRF2 agonists such as sulforaphane seem to inhibit or slow down viral transcription, viral replication and the production of virions. Some studies suggest that quercetin inhibits the production of lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor in macrophages. Conclusion: The deficiency of certain micronutrients is related to a deficient response of the immune system. Therefore, supplementation with these molecules can be very useful in prevention and management of SARS-CoV-2. However, the development of larger studies is needed to allow more precise elucidation of the benefit and adverse effects of these micronutrients in COVID-19.

Introduction: Around the world, entrepreneurial activity is influenced by family. The influence of family in the creation, management, development and continuity of small, medium and large size enterprises is unequivocal. In this revision article, I argue for the relevance of further research in Honduras around entrepreneurship and the family enterprise. Methods and Discussion: As families in business are vital to the social and economic fabric of communities around the world there is value in understanding the special nature of enterprises that operate as family businesses. Honduras is a relevant context of study as research on family enterprises has been underrepresented and several challenges and fortuitous events affect the emergence and continuity of family enterprises. Conclusion: To advance understanding, this revision article brings together a collection of themes that provide a nuanced overview of key discussions and opportunities for further research.

After several weeks of confinement in practically the entire planet, we have observed how world leaders have proposed and counter-proposed a set of measures aimed at containing and reversing the crisis that has caused the spread of COVID-19. These have been moments of uncertainty, concern and wonder in which, as a society, we have come to question the fragility of our health and social protection systems, as well as the capacity of states to respond to all fronts of this emergency: the social, economic and health.

A pesar que el confinamiento es una medida eficaz utilizada para evitar la propagación del virus SARS-CoV-2, no hay duda que ha generado un nefasto impacto económico. Como resultado se tiene un incremento a nivel mundial de hambruna, desnutrición e inseguridad alimentaria, especialmente en países de medianos y bajos ingresos. Sin embargo, el riesgo que la pandemia de la COVID-19 aumente las tasas de obesidad y carencia de micronutrientes también es alto y es un tema del cual no se está hablando públicamente. A nivel mundial, una de cada tres personas sufre de sobrepeso u obesidad, incluyendo niños y adolescentes (Global Nutrition Report, 2020). Honduras no está exento a esta problemática, ya que el 51.3% de las mujeres en edad fértil padece de esta condición, afectándolas independientemente de su estrato económico (ver Cuadro 1). Por otra parte, en Honduras el 15% de las mujeres en edad fértil mostraron tener anemia por deficiencia de hierro, siendo la prevalencia incluso más alta en las mujeres con mayores ingresos económicos (Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Demografía 2011-2012, 2013). Una persona que tiene su peso dentro de los rangos normales e incluso, que tiene obesidad, puede al mismo tiempo estar malnutrida. Esto ocurre al consumir crónicamente una dieta monótona, alta en carbohidratos y grasas, pero baja en proteína y micronutrientes, causando carencia de micronutrientes o “hambre oculta”.

Developing countries are undoubtedly confronting a major challenge with the COVID-19 outbreak, as their debilitated health care systems are facing the dichotomy of allocating resources on either semi-structured units of care or trying to amplify the already struck facilities. Moreover, many were already depleted of medical equipment prior to the outbreak. The rationale behind, was to describe the factors that conditioned an unfavorable environment to face the pandemic. On March 10th 2020, Honduras reported the first case of COVID 19. After 181 days, authorities confirmed 64,764 cases. The fatality rate at the beginning of the pandemic was alarmingly high fluctuating between 2% and as high as 17%. Moreover, frontline healthcare workers were among the first to die, reflecting a remarkably initial scarcity of personal protective equipment (Guan et al., 2019; SINAGER, s.f). Unsurprisingly, data surfacing amidst the outbreak is showing a variability in terms of fatality rates and severity factors across different regions. Large-scale testing has been identified as an effective strategy leading to early detection and consequently rapid isolation.

The purpose of this analysis is to show the importance of education from the university as a privileged space for knowledge and humanization, as well as the need to address humanist training in a responsible and constant way as a preferred goal. In this sense, the term educate itself acquires particular importance for the university, as the mother house of training, since it supports, cares for and feeds the 21st century professionals. Certainly, those three elements intrinsically constitute the etymological sense of educare. This is the nature of the university, as it provides the student knowledge and skills. Therefore "education is the action of educating" (Zalazar 2016). Although the term educate is integrative, it goes beyond professionalization, a term that implies professional competencies in a specific area, such as the rules of the game for the referee or the civil engineering design, supervision and management of infrastructures. The act of educating implies humanizing, according to the Kantian conception of education. For this philosopher from Königsberg, education is an art with the objective of searching for human perfection. This is why it is essential to educate oneself. Through education, a human being becomes a man as soon as he becomes human through education. However, for learners, there is a sense of loss of the meaning and importance of humanities, which could be replaced by a focus on those tools used for professional training, with an exclusive emphasis on the technical-scientific field.

Introduction: The current moment is affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; so, an exercise was carried out to evaluate potential damages and emerging alternatives from the perspective of modern theorists Byung-Chul Han and Slavoj Zizek. Presentation of experience: A theoretical contrast exercise was carried out by collecting news articles, works recently written by both authors, and consulting secondary sources available on web portals of international organizations. Discussion: The theoretical contrasts by both authors pose various implications of social, economic and political order, but passing through the emergence of new trends linked to collectivism and communitarianism as possible axes of human action, with humans seen reinventing the cycle of production and consumption that has traditionally prevailed. Conclusion: The exercise allowed an assessment of human life over the economy. Politics will cross decision mechanisms that will imply a future with collectivism and communitarianism as the key to balance, and as an option to face post-pandemic scenarios.

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that produces COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan (China) in December 2019, until it became the pandemic that affects the whole world. In Honduras, the disease progresses in the context of a poor health system, inequity in the distribution of available resources, lack of advanced technology, and food and nutritional insecurity. In this document we address the issue of food and nutritional security by presenting different recommendations for a healthy diet compared to COVID-19 adapted to the Honduran population. We consider as a base the guides of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP, 2020) and the Spanish Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics with the General Council of Official Colleges of Dietitians-Nutritionists.

In the face of the national and world emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Honduran College of Economists Northwest Chapter considers it necessary to emphasize some proposals of vital importance for the coming weeks that the health crisis lasts and thus face the most immediate negative effects on income, in the consumption and employment of Hondurans.