Good evening everyone.
In 2014, begins to be notified,
in a city in the Northeast,
that people were undergoing allergic process,
and we did not know what it was.
This began to be investigated by the Ministry of Health and its teams,
and no conclusion was reached.
As early as February 2015,
the whole clinical picture, the whole clinical history,
of what was happening.
So, that was until March,
and it was interesting to note that …
I was able to observe in a television program here in Salvador,
of great social impact, in a certain social stratum,
that people complained about water.
So I thought, “How do I take a shower and not feel it?
How do I drink water and not feel it,
and are these people of Camaçari suffering from a water allergy?
That’s not possible”.
Then, talking with a friend of mine, doctor, Dr. Antônio Carlos Bandeira,
and my colleague, Dr. Sílvia Sardi,
we came to the conclusion that something was happening.
So he calls me one day in March and says,
“Look, I have 150 people here in the emergency room, in the hospital …”
there in Camaçari, everybody scratching, with fever.
“and this is not possible.”
So all the possible stories were invented and told in the media.
Then he said to me, “Look, I’m going to collect some samples,
and we’ll meet at the airport. Let’s split the way?
Do you get out of Cinnamon and get to the airport? “
So, I went to the airport, I met him Friday night at 8:30 p.m.
I felt a little embarrassed, right,
to arrive at 8:30 pm and find another partner at the airport.
Said, “What will they be talking about me at 8:30 p.m. at the airport meeting me?”
And then, I started my saga,
who was picking up these samples, take it to the lab on Friday
and start working on Saturday, Sunday.
I am a civil servant,
we do not get extra hours for working Saturday and Sunday,
but I have a passion, which is my job.
My work for me is one of the main passions,
it’s my ideal of life, it’s what I carry inside me.
I started working Saturday, Sunday, holiday, holy day,
me and my colleague in March,
and it’s frustrating you to do tests and more tests and more tests
and give everything negative.
I said, “I will not give up because if I give up, I do not realize myself.
This is my challenge, this is my meeting with myself.
And move on”.
And I started to move on and, on April 28,
it was about 10:30 p.m.,
I was alone in the lab, everyone was gone,
and I began to see the positive results of my goal,
or our goal,
my co-worker and my other friend and partner, the doctor.
So I looked like this and started to find the samples.
The feeling of happiness, I assure you all,
money can not buy,
which is the feeling of you being happy with something you are discovering,
with something you’re finding,
with something that you believe will benefit the other.
There was not the vanity to find out.
He was: “I will give an answer to the people of Camaçari”,
and that’s what we did.
We gave an answer, it was not easy,
because then came all the media attacks
saying that it was false, that it was this, that it was that,
but I believed in myself and my partners
and, when you believe in yourself, you are able to change any aspect.
You can change what you aim for.
You can change your society, your street, your building where you live,
the shack or the apartment where you live.
You can change anything, and that was my goal.
And, to conclude further, I realized,
the record really fell, as the younger say,
was when I first traveled, now in April, to Paris.
I had never been to Paris.
Everyone was talking about Paris, but I did not have the money to go.
I ended up going because a company paid me the ticket, and I went.
Being in Paris, I was one of the best reference centers in the world,
which is the Pasteur Institute.
Suddenly, I was sitting, just as all of you are sitting,
more or less in the middle.
There were 600 researchers talking about zika virus.
Then the chip fell and I was moved;
thus, a feeling of joy, happiness.
I said, “Wow, I’ve discovered something that the whole world is talking about in Brazil.”
I discovered something with which I contributed to society.
He did not give me more money than I already have.
I have nothing, my salary has not changed at all.
I continue to earn civil servant salary.
I had no increase because no increase was given, the government did not give,
but sensation is something you can not afford.
You can not buy the happiness of you look so 600 researchers,
the best in the world, to be there, discussing something you discovered.
And for me, it was so important inside me
which caused me a happiness that you can not imagine.
I said, “I can die here. I will die happy in Paris.”
Not for being in Paris, but for being …
because Paris is a city like any other I’ve ever lived in.
I already lived outside Brazil, I lived in Buenos Aires, so …
but there the sensation of seeing 600 researchers, the best in the world,
the World Health Organization, the best scientists in the US and Europe,
discussing a theme that I discovered.
I did not discover the virus in the world, but I discovered in Camaçari,
I discovered here at the Federal University of Bahia.
So with this I want to show you all
that you can do anything in life
to improve your life, the way of being,
because we say like this: “I am going to change the world”;
change yourself first.
If you want to change the world, change you, do something for yourself;
not buying an imported car, but doing something that brings you happiness,
because the car is stolen, but the happiness I have today,
the joy of seeing millions of scientific works being produced
because I discovered and contributed to society
is something you can not imagine.
So, I thank TEDx,
I thank everyone who is here listening to me,
and I want to say: it’s important for us to do something
to improve society and improve the world.
Thank you all.
(Applause)
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