Malnutrition and Intestinal Parasites: Mexico Perspectives

Abstract

Mexico is the most populated country in Latin America and the second largest in extension after Brazil. According to the population census (2010), more than 80% of its inhabitants are under the age of 50 years. Throughout the years, Mexico has been plunged into poverty and this calamity is expanding overtime. In addition, income inequality has been a constant which keeps the country under economic and health-related hardships. Among other factors, poverty contributes to the onset of malnutrition and intestinal infectious diseases which prevail in the southeast of the country where the majority of poverty and marginalization is concentrated. In 1999, the prevalence of underheight was ~70%, mainly affecting indigenous children. For almost half a century, malnutrition has led to the proliferation of certain diseases such as intestinal amebiasis and ascariasis, positioning them among the twenty most common causes of morbidity in Mexico. In 2015 for example, the incidence rates of both diseases were 211.04 and 39.81 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. In a similar trend, intestinal infectious diseases and helminthiasis were positioned within the ten leading causes of death in the southern and central part of the country. From 1998 to 2014, the cysticercosis and ascariasis claimed the most lives with 2575 and 448 cases, respectively. Other medical relevant protozoa include Cryptosporidium parvum, which contributes to malnutrition in children, and Giardia lamblia whose seroprevalence in Mexico has been determined to be as high as 55.3%. Recommendations by the WHO are to provide antiparasitic drugs, improve the access to drinking water, and implement health education with the purpose of eliminating these neglected diseases. To complete these actions, it is necessary to provide additional investment into the nation’s health sector which will foster and promote the well-being of Mexico’s children.