La esporotricosis es una infección micótica subcutánea ocasionada por el complejo dimórfico Sporothrix, que incluye cinco especies: S. albicans, S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. mexicana y S. schenckii (sensu stricto) . Sus reservorios naturales (fuentes potenciales de infección) están relacionados con la vegetación descompuesta, plantas espinosas, astillosas, tierras de alfarería y musgo contaminados con el hongo. La vía de entrada es por inoculación traumática con material infectado o a través de soluciones de continuidad y la transmisión zoonótica es por rasguño o mordedura de gatos que se ha descrito en pequeños brotes en hogares . Cuando el hongo penetra a través de la piel del individuo sensibilizado produce un síndrome chancriforme, caracterizado por un nódulo primario en el lugar de la implantación y nódulos secundarios satélites que evolucionan hacia gomas y...

There is a gap in the epidemiological data on obesity and COVID-19 mortality in low and middle-income countries worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Peru. In this ecological study, we explored the association between body mass index (BMI), the prevalence of overweight and obesity, and the COVID-19 mortality rates in 25 Peruvian regions, adjusted for confounding factors (mean age in the region, mean income, gender balance and number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds) using multiple linear regression. We retrieved secondary region-level data on the BMI average and prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in individuals aged ≥ 15 years old, from the Peruvian National Demographics and Health Survey (ENDES 2020). COVID-19 death statistics were obtained from the National System of Deaths (SINADEF) from the Peruvian Ministry of Health and were accurate as of 3 June 2021. COVID...

[extracted from abstract] Fungal infections of the eye continue to be an important cause of ocular morbidity and loss of vision, particularly in the developing world [1]. These infections have increased in recent decades due to broad-spectrum antibiotic use, the growing number of patients undergoing procedures that lead to immunosuppression, postoperative infection, trauma, and prolonged corticosteroid use [2]. Ocular fungal infections are categorized by the anatomical location of the infection. These infections can occur around the eye (ocular adnexa), or in the eye, including the anterior and posterior segments of the eye [3]. Major pathogenic fungi of the eye include Aspergillus, Candida spp., Cryptococcus species, and Coccidioides spp., Fusarium, Penicillium, Pseudallescheria, dimorphic fungi as Histoplasma capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Sporothrix spp., and Coccidioides spp. ...

Background In this study, we estimated excess all-cause deaths and excess death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in 25 Peruvian regions, stratified by sex and age group. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Twenty-five Peruvian regions with complete mortality data. Participants Annual all-cause official mortality data set from SINADEF (Sistema Informático Nacional de Defunciones) at the Ministry of Health of Peru for 2017– 2020, disaggregated by age and sex. Main outcome measures Excess deaths and excess death rates (observed deaths vs expected deaths) in 2020 by sex and age (0–29, 30–39, 40 49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79 and ≥80 years) were estimated using P-score. The ORs for excess mortality were summarised with a randomeffects meta-analysis. Results In the period between January and December 2020, we estimated an excess of 68 608 (117%) deaths in men and 34 742 (69%) death...

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza infections are important causes of respiratory illness associated with hospitalizations in children in Peru; however, comparisons of RSV and influenza hospitalization across all age groups are not available in Peru. Therefore, we conducted an observational, retrospective study between May 2015 and October 2021 using hospitalization from RSV and influenza infection data obtained from SUSALUD (open data) in Peru to compare the baseline characteristics of sex, age, region, and infection type. For the study, 2696 RSV-infected and 1563 influenza-infected hospitalized patients from different age groups were included. Most hospitalizations from RSV infection and the influenza virus occurred in children <5 years of age (86.1% vs. 32.2%, respectively). Compared with influenza infection, RSV infection was less likely to occur in individuals ≥5 year...

Abstract: Sporotrichosis is a subacute or chronic mycosis predominant in tropical and subtropical regions. It is an infection of subcutaneous tissue caused by Sporothrix fungus species, but occasionally resulting in an extracutaneous condition, including osteoarticular, pulmonary, nervous central system, and ocular disease. Cases of ocular sporotrichosis are rare, but reports have been increasing in recent decades. Ocular infections usually occur in hyperendemic areas of sporotrichosis. For its classification, anatomic criteria are used. The clinical presentation is the infection in the ocular adnexal and intraocular infection. Ocular adnexa infections include palpebral, conjunctivitis, and infections of the lacrimal sac. Intraocular infection includes exogenous or endogenous endophthalmitis. Most infections in the ocular adnexal have been reported in Brazil, China and Peru, and intraocu...

Introduction: Dengue is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito as a vector, and a recent outbreak was reported in several districts of Lima, Peru. We conducted a modeling study to explain the transmission dynamics of dengue in three of these districts according to the demographics and climatology. Methodology: We used the weekly distribution of dengue cases in the Comas, Lurigancho, and Puente Piedra districts, as well as the temperature data to investigate the transmission dynamics. We used maximum likelihood minimization and the human susceptible-infected-recovered and vector susceptible-infected (SIR-SI) model with a Gaussian function for the infectious rate to consider external non-modeled variables. Results/principal findings: We found that the adjusted SIR-SI model with the Gaussian transmission rate (for modelling the exogenous variables) captured the behavior of the dengue out...

To date, there have been no molecular typing studies to identify the Sporothrix species circulating inAbancay, a hyperendemic area of sporotrichosis in Peru. To identify six clinical isolates of the Sporothrixschenckii complex from Abancay, Peru, we used PCR-sequencing of the calmodulin gene, and a phylo-genetic analysis was conducted with these and additional sequences from GenBank. All clinical isolateswere identified as S. schenckii (sensu stricto). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the six clinical isolatesfrom Abancay, Peru clustered in a clade along with sequences from Costa Rica, Iran, South Africa, and fourother sequences from Peru. These findings reveal the presence of S. schenckii (sensu stricto) in Abancay,Peru.

Background:There is a worrying lack of epidemiological data on the sex differential in COVID-19 infection and death rates between the regions of Peru. Methods: Using cases and death data from the national population-based surveillance system of Peru, we estimated incidence, mortality and fatality, stratified by sex, age and geographic distribution (per 100,000 habitants) from March 16 to November 27, 2020. At the same time, we calculated the risk of COVID-19 death. Results: During the study period, 961894 cases and 35913 deaths were reported in Peru. Men had a twofold higher risk of COVID-19 death within the overall population of Peru (odds ratio (OR), 2.11; confidence interval (CI) 95%; 2.06–2.16; p<0.00001), as well as 20 regions of Peru, compared to women (p<0.05). There were variations in incidence, mortality and fatality rates stratified by sex, age, and region. The incidence rate...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an excess of all-cause mortality has been recorded in several countries, including Peru. Most excess deaths were likely attributable to COVID-19. In this study, we compared the excess all-cause mortality and COVID-19 mortality in 25 Peruvian regions to determine whether most of the excess deaths in 2020 were attributable to COVID-19. Excess deaths were calculated as the difference between the number of observed deaths from all causes during the COVID-19 pandemic (in 2020) and the number of expected deaths in 2020 based on a historical from recent years (2017–2019). Death data were retrieved from the Sistema Informatico Nacional de Defunciones (SINADEF) at the Ministry of Health of Peru from January 2017 to December 2020. Population counts were obtained from projections from Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI). All-cause excess...

A range of health-related and behavioral risk factors are associated with COVID-19 incidence and mortality. In the present study, we assess the association between incidence, mortality, and case fatality rate due to COVID-19 and the prevalence of hypertension, obesity, overweight, tobacco and alcohol use in the Peruvian population aged ≥15 years during the first and second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this ecological study, we used the prevalence rates of hypertension, overweight, obesity, tobacco, and alcohol use obtained from the Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud Familiar (ENDES) 2020 and 2021. We estimated the crude incidence and mortality rates (per 100,000 habitants) and case fatality rate (%) of COVID-19 in 25 Peruvian regions using data from the Peruvian Ministry of Health that were accurate as of 31 December 2021. Spearman correlation and lineal regression analysis was appl...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the deaths in Peru were related to COVID-19; however, cancer deaths have also been exacerbated in the first months of the pandemic. Despite this, excess mortalities of prostate, breast, and uterus cancer are not available by age group and region from January to December 2020. Therefore, we estimated the excess deaths and excess death rates (per 100,000 habitants) due to prostate, breast, and uterus cancer in 25 Peruvian regions. We did a time series analysis. Prostate, breast, and uterus cancer death data for 25 Peruvian regions were retrieved during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as data for up to 3 years prior (2017–2019) from the Sistema Informatico Nacional de Defunciones at the Ministry of Health of Peru. Deaths in 2020 were defined as observed deaths. The expected deaths (in 2020) were estimated using the average deaths over 3 precedi...

Monkeypox (Mpox) is a zoonotic disease caused by the Orthopoxvirus monkeypox virus (MPXV). Since 1970, outbreaks of MPXV have occurred in several Sub-Saharan African countries. However, from May 2022 to April 2023, recent outbreaks of Mpox occurred in several countries outside of Africa, and these cases quickly spread to over 100 non-endemic countries on all continents. Most of these cases were found in the region of the Americas and the Europe region. In Latin America, the highest all-age Mpox rates per million inhabitants were in Peru, Colombia, Chile, and Brazil. Given its global impact, Mpox was declared as an international Public Health Emergency by WHO in July 2022. MPXV infection disproportionately affects men who have sex with men and members of the HIV-infected population. Vaccination is the current strategy for controlling and preventing Mpox in high-risk groups. In this contex...

La esporotricosis es una infección micótica subcutánea ocasionada por el complejo dimórfico Sporothrix, que incluye cinco especies: S. albicans, S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. mexicana y S. schenckii (sensu stricto) . Sus reservorios naturales (fuentes potenciales de infección) están relacionados con la vegetación descompuesta, plantas espinosas, astillosas, tierras de alfarería y musgo contaminados con el hongo. La vía de entrada es por inoculación traumática con material infectado o a través de soluciones de continuidad y la transmisión zoonótica es por rasguño o mordedura de gatos que se ha descrito en pequeños brotes en hogares . Cuando el hongo penetra a través de la piel del individuo sensibilizado produce un síndrome chancriforme, caracterizado por un nódulo primario en el lugar de la implantación y nódulos secundarios satélites que evolucionan hacia gomas y...

El virus del Zika es una enfermedad que se transmite por la picadura del mosquito, no existe una vacuna ni un tratamiento específico para la enfermedad. Por lo tanto, el tratamiento se centra en el alivio de los síntomas y consiste en reposo, rehidratación y medicamentos para la fiebre y el dolor.

Little is known regarding the usefulness of the smartphone in the detection of uterine cervical lesions or uterine cervical cancer. Therefore, we evaluated the usefulness of the smartphone in the detection of uterine cervical lesions and measured its diagnostic accuracy by comparing its findings with histological findings. We conducted a systematic review to identify studies on the usefulness of the smartphone in detecting uterine cervical lesions indexed in SCOPUS, MEDLINE/PubMed, Cochrane, OVID, Web of Science, and SciELO until November 2020. The risk of bias and applicability was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. A total of 16 studies that evaluated the usefulness of the smartphone in the detection of uterine cervical lesions based on the images clicked after visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), Lugol’s iodine (VILI), or VIA/VILI combi...