Figure 1. Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. Picture taken by Muhammad Mahdi Karim from Wikipedia. Dengue fever remains a persistent global health threat, especially in tropical regions like Latin America. Despite political instability and recent reduced federal funding for infectious disease research dengue virus continues to spread, with mosquito breeding and incidence rates showing…
Dengue is exploding across Latin America, with over 12 million cases and 1,000+ deaths reported in 2024 alone. What’s driving this surge? From invasive mosquito species and fast-evolving viruses to vaccine gaps and climate extremes, the region is facing a perfect storm of risk. In this post, we break down five key factors fueling the spike, and what it means for the future of public health in Latin America.
Helicobacter pylori infection disproportionately affects Latinos in the U.S. and Latin America, increasing the risk of gastritis and stomach cancer.
Here, I talk about a recent scientific paper showing that there is a difference in H. pylori seroprevalence, or frequency of infection, based on Hispanic/Latino cultural background and multiple factors associate with the disease.
AI is creeping into our lives, including medical research and provider care. But, what do Hispanics think of using AI in health and medicine?
What can we learn about the Ivermectin craze for policy and decision making?
Here I provide further details on papers that contributed to the Ivermectin hype, giving false hope to both the scientific community and the public, but were ultimately retracted because of unreliable and unsupported data and interpretations.
What does reliable science tells us about using Ivermectin to combat COVID-19?
Although Hispanics are less likely to suffer from the most common cancers (e.g., lung, breast) than non-Hispanic Whites, they have a higher risk for those less common cancers that are also associated with infectious agents (e.g., liver, cervix).
Note. This is updated from a previous blog post I published a long time ago in robotic healthcare on November 29,2018 >>> Hello, World! You may remember from the pre-COVID times the use of the new genome editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 by He Jiankui, scientist at the Southern University of Science and Technology of China, to…
AI is forecasted to increase the region’s GDP greater than 5% by 2030. The report titled “Seizing the opportunity the future of AI in latin America” has a special focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.
The authors suggest that vitamin D can likely reduce severe late stages of COVID-19 infection (as more studies are needed to verify this), while certainly benefiting bone and muscle health. One reason for its possible positive effects is the role of vitamin D in regulating and suppressing the inflammatory cytokine “storm” that leads to severe respiratory problems in patients with COVID-19.
