Probability of hospitalisation and death among COVID-19 patients with comorbidity during outbreaks occurring in Mexico City.

Background: We compared the probability of hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 in patients with comorbidities during three periods defined for this study: first-wave (FW), interwave period (IP), and second-wave (SW) observed in Mexico City. Methods: In this registry-based study, we included individuals over 20 years of age. During the FW (symptomatic), the IP, and the SW (symptomatic and asymptomatic), participants were diagnosed using nasopharyngeal swabs. Symptomatic individuals with risk factors for serious disease or death were referred to the hospital. SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined by RT-qPCR in all hospitalized patients. All data were added to the SISVER database. Bayesian analysis and False Discovery Rate were used for further evaluation. Results: The study included 2 260 156 persons (mean age of 43.1 years). Of these, 8.6% suffered from DM, 11.6% arterial hypertension, and 9.7% obesity. Of the total, 666 694 persons tested positive (29.5%). Of the infected persons, a total of 85 587 (12.8%) were hospitalized: 24 023 in the FW; 16 935 in the IP, and 44 629 in the SW. Of the hospitalized patients, there were 42 979 deaths (50.2%), in the FW, 11 964 (49.8%), in the IP, 6794 (40.1%), and in the SW 24 221 (54.3%). The probability of death among individuals hospitalized with or without comorbidities increased consistently in all age groups. A significant increase in the Fatality Rate was observed in individuals with comorbidities (1.36E-19< = FDR< = 3.36E-2). A similar trend was also observed in individuals without comorbidities (1.03E-44< = FDR< = 5.58E-4). Conclusions: The data from this study show a considerable increase in the number of detected cases of infection between the FW and SW. In addition, 12.8% of those infected were hospitalized for severe COVID-19. A high mortality rate was observed among hospitalized patients (>50%). An age-dependent probability of death was observed with a positive trend in hospitalized patients with and without comorbidities.

Territorial Strategy of Medical Units for Addressing the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City: Analysis of Mobility, Accessibility and Marginalization.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an exponential increase in the demand for medical care worldwide. In Mexico, the COVID Medical Units (CMUs) conversion strategy was implemented. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the CMU coverage strategy in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) by territory. MATERIALS: The CMU directory was used, as were COVID-19 infection and mobility statistics and Mexican 2020 census information at the urban geographic area scale. The degree of urban marginalization by geographic area was also considered. METHOD: Using descriptive statistics and the calculation of a CMU accessibility index, population aggregates were counted based on coverage radii. In addition, two regression models are proposed to explain (1) the territorial and temporal trend of COVID-19 infections in the MCMA and (2) the mobility of the COVID-infected population visiting medical units. RESULTS: The findings of the evaluation of the CMU strategy were (1) in the MCMA, COVID-19 followed a pattern of contagion from the urban center to the periphery; (2) given the growth in the number of cases and the overload of medical units, the population traveled greater distances to seek medical care; (3) after the CMU strategy was evaluated at the territory level, it was found that 9 out of 10 inhabitants had a CMU located approximately 7 km away; and (4) at the metropolitan level, the lowest level of accessibility to the CMU was recorded for the population with the highest levels of marginalization, i.e., those residing in the urban periphery.

Genome: twisting stories with DNA.

In 1920, the German botanist Hans Winkler coined the concept of the 'genome'. This paper explores the history of a concept that has developed in parallel with advances in biology and supports novel and powerful heuristic biological research in the 21st century. From a structural interpretation (the genome as the haploid number of chromosomes), it has changed to keep pace with technological progress and new interpretations of the material of heredity. In the first place, the 'genome' was extended to include all the material in the nucleus, then the sum of all genes, and (with the discovery of the structure of DNA) the sum of the nucleotide base sequences. In the early 21st century, it has become a much more complex and central concept that has spawned the growing field of studies referred to as the 'omics'.

Darwin and inheritance: the influence of Prosper Lucas.

An important historical relation that has hardly been addressed is the influence of Prosper Lucas's Treatise on Natural Inheritance on the development of Charles Darwin's concepts related to inheritance. In this article we trace this historical connection. Darwin read Lucas's Treatise in 1856. His reading coincided with many changes concerning his prior ideas on the transmission and expression of characters. We consider that this reading led him to propose a group of principles regarding prepotency, hereditary diseases, morbid tendencies and atavism; following Lucas, he called these principles: laws of inheritance.

Pangénesis y vitalismo científico / No disponible

La hipótesis provisional de la pangénesis se ha interpretado como una explicación materialista y mecanicista de la herencia, seguramente porque Darwin mismo consideraba que las gémulas eran partículas corporales; sin embargo, analizando los principios en los que descansan las conjeturas de la pangénesis podemos ver cómo están entretejidas con nociones del vitalismo científico, principalmente el principio vitalista del nisus formativus de Blumembach

The provisional hipothesis of the pangenesis has been interpreted as a materialist and mechanistic explanation of heritance, surely because Darwin himself considered that the gemmules were corporal praticles; neverthless, analyzing the principles in which these suppositions on pangenesis rest we can aopreciate how they are interlocked with notions of scientific vitalism, mainly Blumenbach´s vitalist principle nisus formativus

La recepcion del lysenkismo en mexico

La historia de la biología en México nos muestra numerosos casos en los cuales se discutió sobre la necesidad de optar por la ciencia aplicada en detrimento de la ciencia pura, sobre las relaciones entre ciencia e ideología y entre la ciencia y el poder, que nos permiten investigar hoy la forma en que se dirimieron estos problemas en el pasado. En este articulo se estudian las concepciones y controversias entre dos prominentes científicos mexicanos, Alfonso L. Herrera e Isaac Ochoterena, que tuvieron un papel relevante en las primeras etapas de la Biología en México, y se revisa la hipótesis de la inconmensurabilidad, con la cual se ha tratado este asunto previamente. Se pone bajo análisis centralmente la recepción del lysenkismo, ocurrida durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, con los propósitos de estudiar el problema, los argumentos, los personajes involucrados, y, sobre todo, los efectos que tuvo tal recepción en el desarrollo de la investigación biológica en México, los cuales se prolongaron hasta casi forales de la década de los años sesentas en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. (AU)