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Capsicum chinense (habanero pepper) grown in Yucatan, Mexico, is frequently diseased by plant bacterial pathogens, but the bacterial agents remain unidentified. Bacteria associated with diseased C. chinense were isolated and characterized. Two isolates, ChA11 and ChA14, induced hypersensitive response in C. chinense plantlets and caused rot in C. chinense fruit and potato slices. Molecular identification showed both to be Pseudomonas spp. This is the first report identifying Pseudomonas spp. associated with C. chinense grown in Yucatan, and may represent a first step towards developing control measures against this insidious pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migrant farmworkers are among the highest-risk populations for latent TB infection (LTBI) in the United States with numerous barriers to healthcare access and increased vulnerability to infectious diseases. LTBI is usually diagnosed on the border using the tuberculin skin test (TST). QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) also measures immune response against specific Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens. The objective of this study is to assess the comparability of TST and QFT-GIT to detect LTBI among migrant farmworkers on the border, as well as to examine the effects of various demographic and clinical factors on test positivity.Methods: Participants were recruited using mobile clinics on the San Luis US-Mexico border and tested with QFT-GIT and TST. Demographic profiles and clinical histories were collected. Kappa coefficients assessed agreement between TST and QFT-GIT using various assay cutoffs. Logistic regression examined factors associated with positive TST or QFT-GIT results.Results: Of 109 participants, 59 of 108 (55 %) were either TST (24/71, 34 %) or QFT-GIT (52/106, 50 %) positive. Concordance between TST and QFT-GIT was fair (71 % agreement, ĸ = 0.38, 95 % CI: 0.15, 0.61). Factors associated with LTBI positivity included smoking (OR = 1.26, 95 % CI-1.01-1.58) and diabetes/high blood sugar (OR = 0.70, 95 % CI = 0.51-0.98).Discussion: Test concordance between the two tests was fair, with numerous discordant results observed. Greater proportion of positives detected using QFT-GIT may help avoid LTBI under-diagnosis. Assessment of LTBI status on the border provides evidence whether QFT-GIT should replace the TST in routine practice, as well as identifies risk factors for LTBI among migrant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Hispanic immigrants are a fast-growing population in the United States of America (USA) that disproportionately suffer from chronic diseases. Despite the increasing prevalence of obesity in Latin-American countries, only a few studies have examined the onset of chronic diseases in Mexican and Central American migrants in Mexico., Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in Central American immigrants who are in the process of traveling through northeastern Mexico to the United States., Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among migrants, mostly Central Americans. Migrants who agreed to participate in the study were interviewed face-to-face by researchers to obtain their sociodemographic data. To obtain the prevalence, many health indicators related to obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, including weight, height, fasting glucose, and blood pressure, were measured., Results: In total, 520 migrants were interviewed; sociodemographic data indicated that most participants were men (76%), from Honduras (72.6%), single (61.2%), and have elementary level of education (48.6%). The somatometric evaluation revealed that 28.9% were diagnosed as overweight, 10.7% with obesity, and 3.3% with malnutrition. Of less prevalence, 8.8% were detected with hypertension and 4.6% had fasting hyperglycemia. The mean participant age was 29.11 ± 10.00 years. For each participant, the average weight was 66.72 ± 13.09 kg; the average height was 1.64 ± 0.08 m; the average body mass index (BMI) was 24.59 ± 4.32; the mean systolic and diastolic pressures were 116.26 ± 15.13 and 74 ± 9.65, respectively; and the average glycemia was 100.97 ± 21.99. El Salvador showed the highest proportion of people with diabetes (14.7%). Women who participated in this study had a higher proportion of obesity (23.4%, p  = 0.02) and overweight (36.2%) than men (8.4 and 29.2%, respectively). People from Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras reported a high prevalence of overweight participants (63.6, 47.4, and 30.7%, respectively), while people from El Salvador and Nicaragua had a high prevalence of obese participants (23.5 and 21.1%, respectively)., Conclusion: We found significant differences in the rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension between groups of Central American migrants and their place of origin, age, educational level, and gender. Our findings highlight the importance of exploring differences within groups of Central American migrants traveling through northeastern Mexico to the United States, which may explain several health indicators., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Gómez-Morales, Rosas-Torres, Hernández-Jiménez, Mattenberger-Cantú, Vargas-Villarreal, Almanza-Reyes and González-Salazar.)

Genomics has significantly revolutionized pathogen surveillance, particularly in epidemiological studies, the detection of drug-resistant strains, and disease control. Despite its potential, the representation of Latin American countries in the genomic catalogues of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria responsible for Tuberculosis (TB), remains limited. In this study, we present a whole genome sequencing (WGS)-based analysis of 85 Mtb clinical strains from 17 Mexican states, providing insights into local adaptations and drug resistance signatures in the region. Our results reveal that the Euro-American lineage (L4) accounts for 94% of our dataset, showing 4.1.2.1 (Haarlem, n = 32), and 4.1.1.3 (X-type, n = 34) sublineages as the most prevalent. We report the presence of the 4.1.1.3 sublineage, which is endemic to Mexico, in six additional locations beyond previous reports. Phenotypic drug resistance tests showed that 34 out of 85 Mtb samples were resistant, exhibiting a variety of resistance profiles to the first-line antibiotics tested. We observed high levels of discrepancy between phenotype and genotype associated with drug resistance in our dataset, including pyrazinamide-monoresistant Mtb strains lacking canonical variants of drug resistance. Expanding the Latin American Mtb genome databases will enhance our understanding of TB epidemiology and potentially provide new avenues for controlling the disease in the region., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2023 Mejía-Ponce et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Despite the social distancing and mobility restriction measures implemented for susceptible people around the world, infections and deaths due to COVID-19 continued to increase, even more so in the first months of 2021 in Mexico. Thus, it is necessary to find risk groups that can benefit from more aggressive preventive measures in a high-density population. This is a case-control study of suspected COVID-19 patients from Nuevo León, Mexico. Cases were: (1) COVID-19-positive patients and COVID-19-positive patients who (2) developed pneumonia, (3) were intubated and (4) died. Controls were: (1) COVID-19-negative patients, (2) COVID-19-positive patients without pneumonia, (3) non-intubated COVID-19-positive patients and (4) surviving COVID-19-positive patients. ≥ 18 years of age, not pregnant, were included. The pre-existing conditions analysed as risk factors were age (years), sex (male), diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, immunosuppression, obesity, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and smoking. The Mann-Whitney U tests, Chi square and binary logistic regression were used. A total of 56,715 suspected patients were analysed in Nuevo León, México, with 62.6% being positive for COVID-19 and, of those infected, 14% developed pneumonia, 2.9% were intubated and 8.1% died. The mean age of those infected was 44.7 years, while of those complicated it was around 60 years. Older age, male sex, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity were risk factors for infection, complications, and death from COVID-19. This study highlights the importance of timely recognition of the population exposed to pre-existing conditions to prioritise preventive measures against the virus., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Cordero-Franco, De La Garza-Salinas, Gomez-Garcia, Moreno-Cuevas, Vargas-Villarreal and González-Salazar.)

Rising global temperatures and seawater temperatures have led to an increase in extreme weather patterns leading to droughts and floods. These natural phenomena, in turn, affect the supply of drinking water in some communities, which causes an increase in the prevalence of diseases related to the supply of drinking water. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the effects of global warming on human health in the population of Monterrey, Mexico after Hurricane Alex. We interpolated data using statistical downscaling of climate projection data for 2050 and 2080 and correlated it with disease occurrence. We found a remarkable rise in the incidence of transmissible infectious disease symptoms. Gastrointestinal symptoms predominated and were associated with drinking of contaminated water like tap water or water from communal mobile water tanks, probably because of the contamination of clean water, the disruption of water sanitation, and the inability to maintain home hygiene practices.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (R-DEB) is caused by mutations in the COL7A1 gene. The most common mutation reported in Mexican families is the c.2470insG mutation, normally detected by DNA sequencing. We report a faster and more economical high-throughput genotyping method to detect the c.2470insG mutation using specific TaqMan probes in a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) that facilitates genotype analysis with allelic discrimination plots. Our new method correctly genotyped 45 samples that had previously been sequenced as 41 wild-type homozygous (-/-), 1 heterozygous (-/G) and three mutant homozygous (G/G) (100% specificity). This new method allows high-throughput screening and furthermore is economical ($3 US/sample), fast (2 h), and sensitive as it requires only 20 ng input DNA. We used the new test to genotype 89 individuals from 32 unrelated Mexican families with R-DEB. The observed genotypic frequencies were 93.3% for the homozygous wild-type and 6.7% for the heterozygous genotype. The homozygous mutant genotype was not found. In conclusion, the allelic discrimination assay by RT-PCR is a sensitive, specific and effective high-throughput test for detecting the c.2470insG mutation., (Copyright © 2014 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Obese individuals may be at increased risk of iron deficiency (ID), but it is unclear whether this is due to poor dietary iron intakes or to adiposity-related inflammation., Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relations between body mass index (BMI), dietary iron, and dietary factors affecting iron bioavailability, iron status, and inflammation [C-reactive protein (CRP)] in a transition country where obesity and ID are common., Design: Data from the 1999 Mexican Nutrition Survey, which included 1174 children (aged 5-12 y) and 621 nonpregnant women (aged 18-50 y), were analyzed., Results: The prevalence of obesity was 25.3% in women and 3.5% in children. The prevalence of ID was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in obese women and children compared with normal-weight subjects [odds ratios (95% CIs): 1.92 (1.23, 3.01) and 3.96 (1.34, 11.67) for women and children, respectively]. Despite similar dietary iron intakes in the 2 groups, serum iron concentrations were lower in obese women than in normal-weight women (62.6 ± 29.5 compared with 72.4 ± 34.6 μg/dL; P = 0.014), and total-iron-binding capacity was higher in obese children than in normal-weight children (399 ± 51 compared with 360 ± 48 μg/dL; P < 0.001). CRP concentrations in obese women and children were 4 times those of their normal-weight counterparts (P < 0.05). CRP but not iron intake was a strong negative predictor of iron status, independently of BMI (P < 0.05)., Conclusions: The risk of ID in obese Mexican women and children was 2-4 times that of normal-weight individuals at similar dietary iron intakes. This increased risk of ID may be due to the effects of obesity-related inflammation on dietary iron absorption. Thus, ID control efforts in Mexico may be hampered by increasing rates of adiposity in women and children.

Inorganic arsenic exposure in drinking water has been recently related to diabetes mellitus. To evaluate this relationship the authors conducted in 2003, a case-control study in an arseniasis-endemic region from Coahuila, a northern state of Mexico with a high incidence of diabetes. The present analysis includes 200 cases and 200 controls. Cases were obtained from a previous cross-sectional study conducted in that region. Diagnosis of diabetes was established following the American Diabetes Association criteria, with two fasting glucose values > or = 126 mg/100 ml (> or = 7.0 mmol/l) or a history of diabetes treated with insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents. The next subject studied, subsequent to the identification of a case in the cross-sectional study was taken as control. Inorganic arsenic exposure was measured through total arsenic concentrations in urine, measured by hydride-generation atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Subjects with intermediate total arsenic concentration in urine (63.5-104 microg/g creatinine) had two-fold higher risk of having diabetes (odds ratio=2.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.23, 3.79), but the risk was almost three times greater in subjects with higher concentrations of total arsenic in urine (odds ratio=2.84; 95% confidence interval: 1.64, 4.92). This data provides additional evidence that inorganic arsenic exposure may be diabetogenic.

Objective: Acute respiratory diseases occupy the first 5 places in infantile morbidity and mortality around the world, two million children directly dying from such cause annually. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) contains toxic and irritating compounds having an injurious effect on health, producing increased risk of morbidity and mortality in non-smoking adults and children. Our main objective was determining the association between ETS and pneumonia in children., Material and Methods: This was an unmatched case and controls hospital-based study. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated., Results: A total of 285 patients (142 cases and 143 controls) were studied; 47,4 % of the patients were female and average age was 4,5,+2,7. OR for patients being exposed to ETS developing pneumonia was 3,44 (CI: 2,11-5,6)., Discussion: Children being exposed to ETS increases the risk of developing pneumonia by more than threefold.