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In 2014 the Mexican government implemented taxes to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and nonessential energy-dense foods. In this manuscript, we analyze the scientific evidence linking the consumption of these products to chronic diseases, and summarize the studies that have evaluated the observed and expected impact of food taxes in Mexico. The implementation of taxes to unhealthy foods has reduced purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages in 7.6% and nonessential energy-dense foods in 7.4%. A reduction in consumption could decrease obesity prevalence by 2.5%; prevent 20 000 cardiovascular disease events; 189 000 diabetes cases; and 20 000 cardiovascular deaths. Additionally, this impact could save nearly 1 173 million dollars from healthcare costs. Taxes to unhealthy foods should be strengthened up and remain as an integral part of the national strategy to reduce obesity and chronic diseases in Mexico., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the application of gender perspective in public health papers in four journals published by the Mexican National Health Institutes., Material and Methods: A total of 999 papers published in the four journals between 2000 and 2003 was reviewed. Two levels of analysis were considered: (a) data presented by sex, providing description of differences between women and men, and (b) the analysis of these differences from gender perspective., Results: One quarter (25.4%) of the articles described results by sex. The largest percentage was published in Salud Pública de México (48.8%) and the smallest in Revista de Investigación Clínica (16.1%). Gender perspective was used in only 4.2% of papers; of these, drug addictions, health behaviour and violence were the topics that occurred most frequently., Conclusions: This is the first study to assess the application of gender perspective in Mexican health articles. Similarly to other countries, a very small percentage of authors analyzed sex differences, and a smaller proportion applied gender perspective. Results demonstrate the importance of promoting interdisciplinary research that may promote the elucidation of health inequalities between men and women.

AIDS and human rights are closely related issues. This paper describes the relationship between AIDS and human rights, the impact and consequences of discrimination and the importance of the defense of human rights as a cornerstone strategy in AIDS prevention. Some general ethical aspects are addressed and two dilemmas which have been raised by the epidemic are discussed: the apparent conflict between individual and community rights and the reactions of intolerance and repression from those who claim that only through coercive strategies will the epidemic be brought under control. Specific problems in Mexico are described based on data collected at CONASIDA's Human Rights Department between 1992 and 1994. Finally some conclusions are stated emphasizing that, in the AIDS epidemic, the defense of human rights is the cornerstone of any public health strategy.

This paper examines how variations in the height and health of Mexicans during the second half of the twentieth century reflect the evolution of economic inequality, as its effects have repercussions on the health and nutritional conditions of the population. The average height of Mexican adults had a modest increase with respect to the possibilities of human plasticity. These anthropometric variations were the result of the incorporation of advances in science and technology leading to improved standards of living among the population. Body changes were impacted by dietary habits, urbanization, and government policies supporting food production and distribution.

Introduction. In 2021, the Secretaría de Salud de México and the Pan American Health Organization launched an initiative to interrupt intra-domiciliary vector transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi based on the prevalence of Chagas disease in children. The Mexican State of Veracruz was leading this initiative. Objective. To estimate the seroprevalence of T. cruzi infection among children under 15 years of age from rural areas of Veracruz, México. Materials and methods. We identified eight localities of high priority from the Municipality of Tempoal, Veracruz, for baseline serology. Blood samples were collected on filter paper from 817 individuals between June and August 2017, for screening with a third-generation enzyme immunoassay. Reactive cases were confirmed by indirect hemagglutination, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and indirect immunofluorescence tests on peripheral blood serum samples. We calculated seroprevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results. We confirmed Chagas disease cases in children under 15 years of age with a seroprevalence of 1,9% (95 % CI = 1,12-3,16) in the localities of Citlaltepetl, Cornizuelo, Cruz de Palma and Rancho Nuevo. Conclusions. These results indicate recent transmission of T. cruzi in these communities and allow to establish an epidemiological baseline for the design and implementation of a model focused on geographical areas with active transmission to advance toward the elimination of intra-domiciliary vector transmission of this parasite in Mexico.

Background: Solid Organ Transplant recipients (SOTR) appear to be at particular high risk for critical COVID-19 due to immunosuppressive drugs and comorbidities. We report the first description of clinical course and short-term outcomes of kidney and liver transplant recipients with confirmed COVID-19 in Mexico. The objective of this paper was evaluate the clinical course of transplant patients with COVID-19 infection., Material and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated SOTR (kidney and liver) over 18 years of age with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from tertiary care centers in Mexico., Results: Data from 45 kidney transplant recipients were recorded. Median (IQR) age was 43 (IQR 25-70) years. Admission to hospital was required in 37 (75.5 %) patients, of which 8 (16.3%) were hospitalized at Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Acute kidney injury (AKI) stage was documented in 33 (67%) patients. The time of hospitalization was 8 (IQR 6-12) days. Six patients died (12.2%). Additionally, data from 10 liver transplant recipients were included. During their evolution, 5 / 10 required hospital admission and there were no deaths in this group., Conclusions: Transplant recipients show a higher fatality rate and complications from SARS-CoV-2 infection; more studies are needed to identify prognostic factors and effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapies.

Objective: To characterize the scientific production of the Revista Alergia Mexico., Methods: A descriptive study was carried out that took into consideration the bibliometric information of the Revista Alergia México hosted in PubMed (MEDLINE) and Scopus., Results: The total number of articles published during 1991 to 2021 according to Pubmed was 1,115 (annual mean: 37.2 ± 12.3). Scopus registered 1,541 articles during 1972 to 2021 (annual mean: 30.8 ± 14.9); in both sources, original articles (49 and 78%, respectively) and review articles (21 and 12%, respectively) were the most published document modalities; the most relevant topics included asthma (32%), allergic rhinitis (16%) and drug allergy (9%). Public institutions in Mexico were the institutions with the highest number of published articles. The country with the highest number of published papers was Mexico (54%), followed by Colombia (5%) and Spain (4%). The 2020 citation index according to Scopus was 0.9; an H-index of 15; and an impact factor of 0.150. During the period 2016 - 2020, the annual rejection rate ranged from 7% to 30%., Conclusions: Promoting the internationalization of the journal, publishing articles in the English language and achieving the impact factor are among some of the main needs of the Revista Alergia Mexico.

Twenty years after its launch, the most ambitious preventive program implemented at the institutional level in Mexico called PREVENIMSS focuses on new challenges and moves towards relaunching. This paper reviews the foundations and design of PREVENIMSS and its evolution throughout these two decades. The PREVENIMS coverage assessment through national surveys set a relevant precedent in evaluating programs at the Mexican Institute of Social Security. PREVENIMSS has shown progress in preventing vaccine-preventable diseases. However, given the current epidemiological profile, there is still a need to provide more effective primary and secondary prevention of chronic noncommunicable diseases. New digital resources and orientation of PREVENIMSS towards a more comprehensive approach that contemplates secondary prevention and rehabilitation can help to face the growing challenges that the program still faces., (© 2023 Revista Médica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social.)

This paper analyzed the beginning of medical care of children with skin diseases at the Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez, an institution has been of great importance for the development of pediatrics and its subspecialties, one of them pediatric dermatology. The analysis is based on articles about skin disorders of childhood published in the Boletín Medico del Hospital Infantil de Mexico, an important source for the study of medicine in Mexico., (Copyright: © 2021 Permanyer.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed in a significant way the lifestyle in the world and in Mexico. Medicine is not an exception, therefore, modifications in how the assessment and treatment of our patients is done, is mandatory to assure the safeness of the patient, the medical team, the hospital staff, the medical facility, and the community. In this paper, the Mexican Association of Spine Surgery (AMCICO) make recommendations based in the information available at the moment, to help decide when and how to perform a spine surgery in the coronavirus pandemic. Objective: To provide the spine surgeon with the tools required and a decision path to postpone or perform a spine surgery in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper discusses the situation of healthcare in Mesoamerica before and immediately after 1519. In the first 50 years after the Conquest, the Spaniards made extensive use of Nahuatl medicine. However, the influence of this medical tradition was limited due to the rapid imposition of a very different medical system which took little advantage of, among other things, the therapeutic wealth of pre-Hispanic healing traditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Objective: To describe the methodological design of the National Health and Nutrition Survey in localities with less than 100 000 inhabitants (Ensanut 100k)., Materials and Methods: The Ensanut 100k is a probabilistic survey that over-represents households with less economic capabilities. This paper describes the scope of the survey, sampling procedures, measurement and inference and logistics organization., Results: 10 461 home interviews and 26 161 individual interviews were obtained. The household response rate was 89 and 92% from individuals., Conclusions: The probabilistic design of the Ensanut 100k allows to make valid statistical inferences about parameters of interest for public health in localities with less than 100 000 inhabitants, localities where 52% of the population lives according to the 2010 census. The comparability of the results with the Ensanut 2012 faci- litates the assessment of the government's support actions to populations with lower economic capacities in the period 2012-2018., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

This paper describes the creation of the legal framework and the origin, growth and consolidation of the institutions and interventions (initiatives, programs and policies) that nourished public health in Mexico in the past century. It also discusses the recent efforts to guarantee universal social protection in health. This quest, which lasted a century, developed through three generations of reform that gave birth to a health system that offers protection against sanitary risks, protection of health care quality and financial protection to all the population in the country., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

In the Mexican health scenario, the hepatitis C virus epidemic is present, along with its comorbidities and premature mortality. Acting immediately will allow its containment in short term with the proper implementation of the current available tools for prevention, diagnosis and highly effective pharmacological therapies. The Coalition for the study of hepatitis C in Mexico has developed a position paper that takes advantage of these containment measures and presents the development of a National program for the detection, timely treatment and follow-up of patients with hepatitis C., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Introduction: Hip fracture is considered the most serious consequence of falls and osteoporosis. 18% of women will suffer one and 25% die in the first year. Only 73% of survivors will walk as they did previously. We know little about the assistance and evolution of it in Mexico. Our goal was to review the current state of Mexican literature on hip fracture, compare Mexican studies with each other and with quality indicators., Methods: We conducted a search of Mexican articles published between 2000-2017 with the key words: hip fracture, elderly, Mexico and hip fracture (in English) in the databases PubMed, EBSCO and Bibliomed., Results: Twenty-one articles were included. No clinical trials, multidisciplinary unit reports, records, or meta-analyses were found. The average age was 76.9 years and 67.2% were women. No papers were found to report quality indicators. Comorbidity is reported little. The most common complications of hip fractures were delirium, pneumonia and pressure ulcers. Mortality in the acute phase was 0.97 to 12.5%. Special units were not reported. The cost of care oscillated between 1,261 and 13,641 USD., Conclusions: The scientific information on hip fractures in Mexico is sparse, heterogeneous and does not allow for conclusive results. Increasing the amount and quality of research in hip fractures in Mexico is required. It would also be advisable to disseminate the usefulness of multidisciplinary teams and registry of hip fractures, which would help to improve attention.

This paper studies the phase after the declaration of the eradication of smallpox in Mexico and covers the period from June 1952 (the date on which the health authorities officially proclaimed this event) to 1977 (the year in which the National Institute of Hygiene prepared the last batch of glycerinated anti-smallpox vaccine). It is revealed that during these years, the Ministry of Health and Assistance continued to invest resources in work aimed at combating smallpox to maintain the levels of protection against smallpox and to prevent the reintroduction of the disease at a time when it was still endemic in several countries worldwide; and states that the population continued to report suspected cases and attribute deaths to this disease.

The Mexican Ministry of Health requested the National Institute of Public Health to constitute a group of independent, free of conflict-of-interest academic experts on front-of-pack labelling (FOP). This group was instructed to created a positioning paper to contribute to the development of a FOP system for industrialized products that offers useful information for purchase decision making. This position paper uses the best available scientific evidence, and recommendations from experts of international organizations. The FOP proposal focuses on the contents of energy, nutrients, ingredients and components that if consumed in excess on the diet, can be harmful to people's health, such as added sugars, sodium, total fat, saturated fat and energy. The academic expert group recommends the implementation of a FOP that provides an easy way to quickly assess the quality of a product. It is essential that this FOP provides direct, simple, visible and easily understandable information., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Objective: To determine the impact of Seguro Popular (SPS) on catastrophic and impoverishing household expenditures and on the financial protection of the Mexican health system., Material and Methods: The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied to the population affiliated to SPS to determine the program's attributable effect on health expenditure. This analysis uses the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) during 2004-2012, conducted by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics andGeography (INEGI)., Results: It was found that SPS has a significant effect on reducing the likelihood that households will incur impoverishing expenditures. A negative effect on catastrophic expenditures was also found, but it was not statistically significant., Conclusions: This paper shows the effect that SPS, in particular health insurance, has as an instrument of financial protection. Future studies using longer periods of ENIGH data should analyze the persistence of high out-of-pocket expenditure., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interests. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Objective: People with intellectual developmental disorders (IDD) have worse health statuses in comparison with general population. The objective of this paper is to compare access and hospital morbimortality in people with IDD and general population., Material and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analytical study and analyzed data on admissions and discharges between IDD patients and the rest of them, in Ciudad Real, España., Results: Out of 51 325 hospital admissions, 441 (0.9%) belonged to the group of persons with IDD. The IDD group had fewer programmed hospitalization than the general population and fewer surgical interventions. They presented more admissions for mental disorders and respiratory system diseases., Conclusions: The data presented confirm TDI population have different patterns of disease. Furthermore, this study reveal potential difficulties in access to health care in this population.

This paper uses Mintz's category of outside meaning to present the social, economic and politic context in Mexico in which the concept of "eating right" [alimentación correcta] has been constructed, from the first food-related interventions to the current social food policies. The text is divided in three periods. The first refers to the notion of "normal diet" [dieta normal] and spans from 1930 to 1980. The second is characterized by a focus on individual requirements of vitamins and minerals, going from 1980 until 2000. Finally, the third period goes from 2000 to the present, and corresponds to the concept of a "proper diet" [dieta correcta]. A main conclusion is that the underlying purpose of the food interventions has been to modernize Mexico - according to the different conceptualizations of what it meant to do so predominant in each period - while maintaining and reproducing relationships of power.

Objective: To assess and identify from the resident's perspective the current state of the urology residency training in the surgical, research, affective domain and its working future., Material and Methods: We performed an anonymous survey of 98 urology residents during 2014. The survey included 62 questions and assesses the surgical, the clinical research, and the affective domain, and also its working future., Results: We reviewed a total of 98 surveys, average age 29 years, 92% men and 8% women. The scholarship average was 12,000-14,000 pesos. Most of them have had at least one research work in a national congress, but not in an international one. Less than 10% has published papers in PubMed, although most consider clinical research as mandatory in their urology training programs. Most residents consider their training in laparoscopy to be inadequate, but they consider the relationship between partners and teachers is adequate and most of them are satisfied with their program.

1915 was a terrible year for Mexican people. After dictator Huerta’s fall, fratricide fighting involved diverse revolutionary groups. Mexico City was assaulted and occupied successively by different armies and, following the war came hunger and epidemics. Many people died from starvation, 30 to 40 every day in July and August. In this paper I review the medical texts written by physicians involved in the treatment of these patients. The main were E. Landa, M. Torroella and F. de P. Miranda and all of them concurred in the observation of important edema increasing to become generalized, important anemia and a watery aspect of the blood, facts that determine the term edema employed to characterize this disease.

Arterial pseudoaneurysm of the lower limb is an infrequent entity, particularly in the infrapopliteal segment. It is commonly associated to vascular repairs or follows a localized arterial lesion, a fracture or a surgical procedure. There is little information in Mexico about this entity in cases involving the anterior tibial artery, and secondary to trauma and osteosynthesis. Given that sudden bleeding due to rupture of the pseudoaneurysm is a possible catastrophic outcome for the viability of the segment, it is important to timely detect and diagnose the pseudoaneurysm. Treatment indications contained in the international literature are controversial. Solution-oriented approaches may be either surgical or endovascular. Current reports show that the best treatment option is an autologous saphenous vein graft, which maintains blood flow and minimizes the risk of peripheral ischemia. The purpose of this paper is to report the case of a patient who sustained the above mentioned complication and provide a literature review. This topic should be further investigated, as this condition may go unnoticed in a large number of cases, given that its symptoms are silent.

Human stem cells, particularly embryonic, have huge therapeutic potential to many degenerative diseases, so they are the subject of intense research in many countries. Because obtaining human stem cells involves the use of zygotes obtained by in vitro fertilization, when they arrive in the blastocyst stage, ethical issues arise that some groups considered insurmountable; in Mexico to date it has not been possible to established a law or rule that regulates the issue. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ideological conflicts that have led to this situation, and about the light a judgment delivered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights may shed on a democratic and secular legislation.

This article analyzes the Mexican regulation on palliative care and its relationship with the public debate on assisted death or suicide. This paper focuses on the rights that people with incurable diseases have, given the current contents of the General Health Statute and other applicable rules. Its main purpose is to activate the public debate on these matters.

Background: It is known that in the last decade, spinal disorders are increasing among children, and this generates high concern in areas of healthcare and educational stakeholders to develop preventative strategies to help curb this trend. This paper intends to go a step further in this direction and to explore factors associated with the presence of scoliosis hump, thus contributing to a better approach in the treatment and prevention of this disease in Mexican schools., Objectives: The objectives of the study were to analyze the prevalence of scoliosis, posture, laterality, obesity, early plant development, and deformity in schoolchildren aged 9-12 years of Ciudad Carmen (Mexico) and to check the possible relationship of the latter with the presence of hump scoliosis., Methods: The sample consisted of 295 Mexican schoolchildren, analyzed in 2012, with an average age of 10.36 years (SD: 1,142); valued by Adams Test, Posture Kendall, BMI, Edinburgh inventory test, and plantogram sitting height. For analysis of the data, SPSS 20.0 was used., Results: The number of subjects who had scoliosis was 42 (14.2%), improper posture occurred in 123 (41.7%) cases, 158 (53.5%) subjects were obese, in 63.7% maturational development had not started, most were skilled and had a normal foot type, and after the binary logistic regression analysis, the factors with a significant level of association with the presence of scoliosis were laying hump (Exp [B]: 5.569; 2.746-11.757), the type of foot (Exp [B]: 0151; 0.033-0.652), and age (Exp [B]: 242; 0.192-0.877)., Conclusions: The prevalence of scoliosis among Mexican schoolchildren is similar to that found in other parts of the world. half of the school presented data from obesity and four in ten students had abnormal posture. Furthermore, the model indicated that subjects with correct posture were five-times less likely to develop scoliosis hump, that schoolchildren with normal feet were 14% less likely to have scoliosis, and that the risk increased with age.

In this paper we present the first evidence of a mastectomy for breast cancer in America, performed in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in the eighteenth century. This intervention was recorded in an anonymous ex-voto in which Mrs. Josefa Peres Maldonado thanks the Black Christ of Encino and the Immaculate Conception or Virgin of the village for the good results obtained. The French physician and surgeon Peter Maille performed the operation with the help of friars of the convent-hospital San Juan de Dios. We review the history of the surgical treatment of breast cancer, the pictorial structure of the document, the surgical technique proposed by the Royal College of Surgeons (New Spain) at the time, and the association between this event and its time as an example of the impact that the Age of Enlightenment had in New Spain.

The ever-increasing establishment of landscape mosaics is expressed as a surrounding matrix of agricultural activities, which frames patches or remnants of the original vegetation cover. Conservation actions should be aimed to establish or to increase those interactive systems, which help to maintain the land- scape flow through linkages. Spaces occupied by traditional management systems retain and support this func- tion. In this paper, we used Geographic Information Systems to evaluate the importance of traditionally managed forest units ('acahuales'-coffee plantations) and to assess landscape connectivity in the indigenous Popoluca area of Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Mexico. The cartographic material used to establish the types of vegetation and their coverture included the period 1991-2008. At landscape level, four indices were used to assess the general situation of the habitat network, and to identify the patches of high priority. Individually, indices evaluated if patches were important for their area, their potential flow or their connecting function. Results showed that the landscape is functioning as a single system, but having low connectivity. Values improved when traditionally managed forest patches were considered as viable habitat. We detected 367 patches of very high priority, 80% belonging to forests managed traditionally. Patches were important for their potential flow (size and topologi- cal relationships). Only 70 patches were significant for their function as biological corridors between largest forests located at the top of the volcanoes, and are mostly managed forest (75%). We concluded that the units of traditionally managed forest play a significant role in landscape connectivity maintenance.

Introduction: The mutations found in the IDUA gene depend on racial and genetic background. The aim of this paper is to determine the mutations of the IDUA gene in patients with MPS I in the Northeast of Mexico and the relationship with phenotype., Results: Molecular studies were performed in seven patients from Nuevo Leon with MPS I. Five patients had Hurler-Scheie phenotype and two had Hurler phenotype. Four patients (57.1%) had the mutation p.W402X, and two patients (28.5%) had the mutation p.533R, which are both common mutations found in MPS I. Three patients had a novel mutation p.180Ser, so the relationship phenotype/genotype is unknown. Six patients (85.7%) were heterozygotes and one (14.2%) was homozygote. There was a good phenotype/genotype relationship in patients with previously described mutations and only in one patient the genotype had no correlation with the expected phenotype., Conclusions: The most common mutation in these patients was p.W402X. The mutation p.180Ser has not been listed as a pathogenic mutation or as polymorphism in the data base of the IDUA gene. There was a good phenotype/genotype relationship.

The central ideas of this research paper are related to the practice of family medicine as a specialty. It focuses in its origins, problems, unique characteristics, limitations, scope, management, and processes within the context of primary care of the Mexican Social Security System. This approach was based on a qualitative, hermeneutical study closely related to the Structural Functionalism Theory. Within this framework, medical practice is seen as an equation: Meaning = action + function/structure. This offers an approach to the understanding of reality through surveys and observations in five categories: identity, activity, purpose, values/norms, and power/relationship. The practice of family medicine is defined as a medical act in the Mexican Social Security Institute. This act is limited to a brief encounter and a prescription, which makes it a short, fleeting, medicalized interaction. The result is a negative social imaginary of the physician, the patient and the whole of society. Thus, individuals and society host a negative social imaginary bestowed on doctors and users of the health system.

Based on a review of secondary data and the scientific literature and an analysis of the ENSANut-2012 database, the current study provides a comprehensive overview of the current burden of road traffic injuries (RTI) in Mexico and analyzes the country's social response to RTI. The high collision, injury, mortality, and disability rates associated with this public health problem represent a high cost for Mexican society, especially for families. The paper argues that the Mexican response has focused on vehicle occupants while overlooking vulnerable road users and has prioritized strategies with limited effectiveness. Although the country's existing legislation addresses the main risk factors, enforcement has been limited. Finally, the paper makes some recommendations for strengthening the Mexican strategy to prevent RTI, such as safe, equitable, healthy, and sustainable mobility for all types of road users. Despite some strides in RTI prevention, there are still challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the future.

The Red Cross is an emblem that is almost universally known and is closely linked with humanitarian aid, medical and healthcare disasters, war, and in general with support and solidarity. Nevertheless, this emblem cannot be used by just anyone; it has special protection under International Humanitarian Law. In the case of Mexico, in addition to the above cited, the use of the emblem and the name "Red Cross" is regulated by law therefore, in this paper we analyze by whom, how, and when the use of this emblem is allowed without violating national and international regulations.

Coastal lagoons are considered important nursery areas for many coastal fishes. Barra de Navidad coastal lagoon (3.76km2) is important for local economy as it supports tourism development and artisanal fisheries. However, the role of this lagoon in the dynamics of coastal fish populations is scarcely known. Thus, the objectives of this research were: to characterize the water of the lagoon and related weather conditions, to develop a systematic list of the ichthyofauna, and to estimate the proportion of juveniles in the total number of individuals captured of most abundant species. Water and fish samples were collected between March 2011 and February 2012. Physical and chemical variables were measured in rainy and dry seasons. Several fishing gears were used including a cast net, beach purse seine and gillnets of four different mesh sizes. Our results showed that the lagoon is most of the time euhaline (salinity 30-40ups), although it can be mixopolyhaline (salinity 18-30ups) during short periods. Chlorophyll and nutrients concentrations suggested eutrophication in the lagoon. Mean water temperature changed seasonally from 24.9 degrees C (April, high tide) to 31.4 degrees C (October, low tide). Considering ichthyofauna species, a total of 36 448 individuals of 92 species were collected, 31 of them adding up to 95% of the total of individuals caught. Dominant species were Anchoa spp. (44.6%), Diapterus peruvianus (10.5%), Eucinostomus currani (8.1%), Cetengraulis mysticetus (7.8%), Mugil curema (5.2%) and Opisthonema libertate (4.5%). The lagoon is an important juvenile habitat for 22 of the 31 most abundant species. These included several species of commercial importance such as snappers (Lutjanus argentiventris, L. colorado and L. novemfasciatus), snook (Centropomus nigrescens) and white mullet (Mugil curema). Other four species seem to use the lagoon mainly as adults. This paper is the first contribution on the composition of estuarine ichthyofauna in Jalisco State, and it also constitutes the more complete reference on the detailed size composition of a set of dominant species in a coastal lagoon in the central Mexican Pacific.

This paper is a brief history of public health. I review the concept of public health and its origins in the West, and also analyze the input of politics in the Mexican health system through the government of Porfirio Diaz.

By 1960, México's Manicomio General (General Asylum) could no longer fulfill the functions for which it was created so implementation of the so-called Castañeda Operation began, an initiative designed to close down and relocate psychiatric patients to other institutions. At that time, Dr. Manuel Velasco-Suárez was in charge of the General Direction of Neurology, Mental Health and Rehabilitation, and planned to create the Institute of Neurology on a site he already possessed for its construction. The Asylum was a dependency of the aforementioned Direction and Velasco- Suárez decided that some patients at the Castañeda could be moved to the old hacienda house that stood on that terrain. Thus was born the Bernardino Álvarez Farm Hospital. A year later, in 1961, the Farm School for the Weak-Minded, also named Bernardino Álvarez was established there as well. This paper examines the history of these two institutions as antecedents to the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía.

Background: There is no data about the performance of scientific researchers in biomedicine in our environment that can be use by individual subjects to compare their execution with their pairs., Material and Methods: Using the Scopus browser the following data from 115 scientific researchers in biomedicine were obtained: actual institution, number of articles published, place on each article within the author list as first, last or unique author, total number of citations, percentage of citations due to the most cited paper, and h-index. Results were analyzed with descriptive statistics and simple lineal regressions., Results: Most of scientific researches in the sample are from the National Institutes of the Health Ministry or some of the research institutes or faculties at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Total number of publications was < 50 in 26%, from 50 to 100 in 36.5%, from 101 to 150 in 18.2%, from 151 to 200 in 9.5%, and more than 200 papers in 9.5%. The researcher was considered to be the main author, by being the first, the last or the unique author, from the 22 to 91% of the papers, with 75% being main author in more than 50% of the manuscripts. Total citations varied from 240 to 10,866. There is a significant correlation between the number of papers and citations, with R2 of 0.46. In the most cited paper, the researchers were considered the main author in 43%. The h-index varied from 7 to 57. Eight researchers had h-index of less than 10. Most are between 11 and 20, 25% are between 21 and 0 and only 10.4% had an h-index of more than 30. There is a significant correlation between number of published papers and h-index, with R2 of 0.57., Conclusions: This work provides an analysis of scientific publications in a sample of 115 scientific researchers in biomedicine in Mexico City, which can be used to compare the productivity of individual subjects with their pairs.

In this paper we discuss the recent efforts to modernize the School of Public Health of Mexico (ESPM). In the first part we analyze the conditions in which the ESPM operated at the beginning of the 1980s. In part two we describe the changes introduced in the ESPM between 1983 and 1986, up until its incorporation into the National Institute of Public Health (INSP). In part three we discuss the conceptual renovation which built the platform for the new academic programs introduced by the School between 1987 and 1995. In the fourth part we discuss the construction of the new facilities of INSP and the process of moving to the city of Cuernavaca. The main message of this paper is that the transformations witnessed by the ESPM in the final decades of the past century turned it into a true academic institution which uses research as the motor for training of human resources in public health.

This paper seeks to determine the prevalence of victims of school bullying among youth enrolled in public secondary schools in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Mexico and to identify the factors associated with being a victim of bullying in the period 2009-2011. An analytic cross-sectional study was carried out. A multistage probability sampling was designed for the public secondary schools, in which 1,706 students between 11 and 16 years old were studied. A questionnare with four sections was applied in order to identify victims of bullying. A logistic regression model was then used to measure the association between the factors analyzed and being a victim of bullying. The prevalence of school bullying was 17.6% (95% CI 15.8; 19.5). Personal factors, such as the feeling of not being accepted by peers or not spending much time with friends, were the factors with the strongest statistically significant association with being a victim of bullying.

Unlike many other Latin American countries Mexico has no coherent and explicit national pharmaceutical policy (NPP). Other national challenges are: high out-of-pocket expenditure on medicines despite the implementation of universal health care coverage through Seguro Popular, high prices of medicines in the private sector in comparison to other countries when adjusted for income level, and the lack of clear strategies to improve safety and efficiency in the use of medicines, in particular interventions aimed at private physicians, pharmacies and consumers. The aim of this paper is to describe the challenges and opportunities to (1) consolidate the processes of formulating, implementing and evaluating NPP, and (2) define the policy content with regard to access and use of medicines.

The Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (Spanish acronym INCMNSZ) is a third tier healthcare facility operated by the Mexican Ministry of Health, ando ver the years various strategic planning models have been used in its development. This paper present a brief overview of some of those strategic planning models and their application and concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned and challenges than remain.

Mexican specialists in oncology, oncologic surgery, thoracic surgery, pneumology, pathology, molecular biology, anesthesiology, algology, psychology, nutrition, and rehabilitation (all of them experts in lung cancer treatment) in order to develop the National Consensus on Lung Cancer. The consensus has been developed as an answer to the need of updated Mexican guidelines for the optimal treatment of the disease, as well as to the requirements that such guidelines be established by multidisciplinary panel, depicting the current attention given to cancer lung cases in Mexico. Thus, this paper analyses the epidemiological review, screening, diagnosis, staging, pathology, translational medicine, and the suitable therapies for early, locally advanced, and metastatic disease in the first, second, and third lines of management, as well as rehabilitation and palliative measures.

Depression is an important public health problem. It is the fourth cause of disease in the world in terms of lost years of healthy life. In Mexico, it ranks first in terms disability for women and ninth for men. There is a high comorbidity between depression and other mental disorders such as anxiety and substance abuse, as well as other serious and chronic physical conditions (e.g. diabetes, and heart disease). Despite the impact of depressive disorders in the quality of life of the population, there is a large proportion of people who don't get treatment, delaying seeking help and thus don't receive adequate assistance. The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of depression status in the Mexican population from a public health perspective; it includes prevalence and associated factors, gaps in care, characteristics of the use of services and treatments available. The paper concludes with a presentation of the implications for research and mental health policy in Mexico.

Spices are aromatic plants that have been widely used in Mexico to preserve or seasoning different foods, but have also been used as herbal remedies to cure some diseases. These culinary and medicinal properties of spices have been attributed to several food components, including phytochemicals. Among them, polyphenolic compounds have been extensively studied for their effect against several chronic and degenerative diseases, probably due to their antioxidant activity. The study of the antioxidant capacity of Mexican spices may lead to new research on the potential benefits of these spices on human health. This paper analyzes the main studies on the potential beneficial effects of traditional Mexican spices on human health., (Copyright © AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2013. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.)