Epidemiologic status of drug abuse in Mexico.

Abuse of alcoholic beverages and tobacco appear to constitute priority public health problems in Mexico, while abuse of other drugs is sufficiently widespread to justify concern. More specifically, a recent national survey (11) found that over 10% of the male subjects 18 to 65 years old met established international criteria for alcohol dependence, while about a quarter of those surveyed were active smokers. A total of 4.

[Epidemiological status of drug abuse in Mexico].

As a country that produces marijuana and opium, and as a route for cocaine traffic to the United States of America, Mexico is experiencing serious social and health problems related to the trafficking, use, and abuse of these drugs and other dependency-producing substances. In 1988 a national survey of addiction was undertaken in which information was collected on the prevalence of the use of alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, opium, heroin, narcotic analgesics, sedatives, and tranquilizers. A sample was identified in the population between the ages of 12 and 65 living in urban areas of more than 2,500 inhabitants, which account for approximately 65% of the country's total population.

[Chagas' disease in patients with renal transplantation].

After observing a fatal chagasic infection in a renal transplant recipient we investigated Chagas disease in 84 recipients of renal transplants. The indirect hemagglutination test was used for screening and xenodiagnosis followed in positive cases, along with ECG and gastrointestinal X ray series. Nine cases were detected (10%); parasites were found in the blood of 6 of them (66%).