MIGRANTS IN TRANSIT AND ASYLUM SEEKERS IN MEXICO: AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

  1. Ietza Bojorquez
  2. César Infante
  3. Isabel Vieitez
  4. Silvana Larrea
  5. Chiara Santoro

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Abstract

BACKGROUND

Migrants could be disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet little is known so far of the epidemiology of the disease among them, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the epidemiology of suspect cases of COVID-19 in migrants in transit and asylum seekers in Mexico, and to compare their characteristics with those of non-migrants.

METHODS

This was a secondary analysis of information from the surveillance system of Mexico from January 1 to May 3 2020, identifying persons from the main sending countries of mixed migrant flows in Mexico (Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela and African countries), in northern and southern Mexican border states. We compared the demographic and clinical characteristics, risk conditions, and epidemic curves for migrants and non-migrants. Also, we estimated the cumulative incidence for non-migrants, and for migrants in two scenarios defined by different estimations of their population size.

RESULTS

Migrants were on average younger, had less accompanying risk conditions, and a lower percentage of suspect cases tested positive for COVID-19. The odds of hospitalization were lower among migrants, but the difference disappeared after adjusting by age, gender and underlying risk conditions. The cumulative incidence ratios comparing migrants with non-migrants were 6.12 (CI95% 4.75,7.77) for the first scenario, and 1.49 (CI95% 1.15,1.89) for the second scenario.

CONCLUSION

Migrants and asylum seekers in Mexico are at increased risk for infectious respiratory diseases, and could be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is important to continue monitoring the situation, with more detailed information about migration status, living conditions and other determinants of migrants health.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.08.20095604: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.08.20095604 on medRxiv