Publications by authors named "Samuel Ponce de Leon-Rosales"

Background: Severe COVID-19 is a disease characterized by profound dysregulation of the innate immune system. There is a need to identify highly reliable prognostic biomarkers that can be rapidly assessed in body fluids for early identification of patients at higher risk for hospitalization and/or death. This study aimed to assess whether differential gene expression of immune response molecules and cellular enzymes, detected in saliva samples of COVID-19 patients, occurs according to disease severity staging.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The first level of medical care provides the largest number of consultations for the most frequent diseases at the community level, including acute pharyngitis (AP), acute diarrhoea (AD) and uncomplicated acute urinary tract infections (UAUTIs). The inappropriate use of antibiotics in these diseases represents a high risk for the generation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria causing community infections. To evaluate the patterns of medical prescription for these diseases in medical offices adjacent to pharmacies, we used an adult simulated patient (SP) method representing the three diseases, AP, AD and UAUTI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has complicated the management of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Design: prospective observational study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In recent years, the increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized as a real threat to human and animal health. It is a problem that has been given the highest priority, uniting nations in the fight against its causes and effects. Among the actions that have been implemented are: clinical and microbiological surveillance, promotion of rational and controlled use of antibiotics, AMR stewardship programs in hospitals, development of tools for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases to establish prompt and adequate treatment, and radically improving vaccination strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: On January 23, 2020, China imposed a quarantine on the city of Wuhan to contain the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Regardless of this measure, the new infection has spread to several countries around the world.

Objective: We developed a method to study the dissemination of this infection by airline routes and provide estimations of the time of arrival of the outbreak to different cities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most frequent functional gastrointestinal disorder, worldwide, with a high prevalence among Mestizo Latin Americans. Because several inflammatory disorders appear to affect this population, a further understanding of host genomic background variants, in conjunction with colonic mucosa dysbiosis, is necessary to determine IBS physiopathology and the effects of environmental pressures. Using a simple polygenic model, host single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the taxonomic compositions of microbiota were compared between IBS patients and healthy subjects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To establish the current situation of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic consumption in Mexican hospitals.

Materials And Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility data from blood and urine isolates were collected. Defined daily dose (DDD) of antibiotic consumption/100 occupied beds (OBD) was calculated.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

On May 2016, anticipating the rainy season from June to October in Mexico, we expected an increase in cases of Zika virus (ZIKV) infections. With the goal of identifying cases of GBS associated with ZIKV infection, a prospective joint study was conducted by a reference center for neurological patients and the Secretary of Health in Mexico City from July 2016 to November 2016. Serum, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, and saliva were tested by RT-PCR for ZIKV, dengue virus, and chikungunya virus in patients referred from states with reported transmissions of ZIKV infection, and with clinical symptoms of GBS according to the Brighton Collaboration criteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The lack of comprehensive understanding of the way immunity backfires on incidence and complications has made Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), the infectious disease of our times, as evidenced by in the parallel course it follows along epidemic of chronic degenerative diseases. Within these ailments, if as suspected the main effect of Clostridium difficile A and B toxins depends on inflammation, then aberrant immune function due to antibiotics would explain IBD triggering after treatment but also, the higher incidence and mortality surrounding disorders that are inflammatory and/or that show abatement of neutrophils. This review will discuss severity of the disease in terms of challenges to immunity during the progression of acute illness.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Psoriasis is an autoimmune skin disease that may be associated with articular manifestations, and the most common clinical presentation is the variety "in plaques". In Mexico, in the Centro Dermatológico Pascua, it is the eighth leading cause of consultation. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic process of patients in a reference center for diseases of the skin.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Influenza is a viral respiratory disease capable of causing epidemics that represent a threat for global security. Mexico was the first country to notify the WHO of an outbreak of what later became the first influenza pandemic of the 21st Century, caused by the virus A(H1N1)2009. Before this event Mexico had a national pandemic influenza preparedness plan, which included seasonal influenza vaccination, stockpiles of personal protection equipment and strategic drugs, and risk communication strategies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Hypertension ranks first medical care in first level units. It is estimated that half of the patients with hypertension are uncontrolled. The purpose of this document is to provide recommendations to guide diagnosis and treatment of arterial hypertension in primary care, which have been considered key to the process of care, in order to help health professionals in the clinical decision-making.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An important piece of improvement in public health standards, medicine achievements, and development is based on the impressive effect of vaccines and antibiotics on infectious diseases. However, the last three or so decades have witnessed how an unsound use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic multi-resistant clones in hospitals and community environments. It also has been said that antibiotic research and the development pipeline has crashed, leading to no new antibiotic molecules to be tested at a time of treatment failure, manifest with unacceptable frequency as an increased economic and human cost in lives.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Eradication of poliomyelitis seems to be more feasible than ever. During recent years the strategy has reached milestone goals, faced new challenges, and re-configured by itself. In this text we describe the current situation of the polio eradication efforts worldwide and present an analysis of the potential implications and needs regarding vaccination in the coming years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To assess knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding influenza pandemic, with special emphasis on issues related to influenza vaccine, seasonal and pandemic.

Materials And Methods: Cross-sectional study, probabilistic multistage sampling in patients over 18 years, residents of Mexico City (and metropolitan area), Monterrey, Guadalajara and Merida in December 2009.

Results: A total of 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chagas disease is a leading cause of heart disease affecting approximately 10 million people in Latin America and elsewhere worldwide. The two major drugs available for the treatment of Chagas disease have limited efficacy in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected adults with indeterminate (patients who have seroconverted but do not yet show signs or symptoms) and determinate (patients who have both seroconverted and have clinical disease) status; they require prolonged treatment courses and are poorly tolerated and expensive. As an alternative to chemotherapy, an injectable therapeutic Chagas disease vaccine is under development to prevent or delay Chagasic cardiomyopathy in patients with indeterminate or determinate status.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We undertook this study to review attitudes, beliefs and practices of healthcare workers (HCW) toward pandemic influenza A vaccine (H1N1) 2009 reported in the literature. Relevant papers published from 2009-2011 reporting attitudes, beliefs and practices of HCW towards pandemic influenza vaccine were identified. Variables such as age, gender, profession, work place area, and previous vaccination uptake were analyzed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bothrops asper is the species that induces the highest incidence of snakebite envenomation in southern Mexico, Central America and parts of northern South America. The intraspecies variability in HPLC profile and toxicological activities between the venoms from specimens collected in Mexico (Veracruz) and Costa Rica (Caribbean and Pacific populations) was investigated, as well as the cross-neutralization by antivenoms manufactured in these countries. Venoms differ in their HPLC profiles and in their toxicity, since venom from Mexican population showed higher lethal and defibrinogenating activities, whereas those from Costa Rica showed higher hemorrhagic and in vitro coagulant activities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pandemic of HIV and AIDS has existed for almost 30 years in the clinical setting. Although there was a surprising reaction during the early years in global public health, for the last 14 years, mainly due to the creation of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), a systematic epidemiological surveillance of this disease has refined the available data and has allowed the evolution of the epidemic to be monitored more or less in detail. In Mexico, something similar has occurred.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To compare the nosocomial infection (NI) rate obtained from a retrospective review of clinical charts with that from the routine nosocomial infection surveillance system in a community hospital.

Material And Methods: Retrospective review of a randomized sample of clinical charts.Results were compared to standard surveillance using crude and adjusted analyses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF