Epidemiology of scorpionism in Mexico

Globally, > 1,200,000 cases and > 3,250 deaths occur annually from scorpion sting envenomation (SSE). Twenty-five percent of cases occur in Mexico.

To describe the temporal and spatial trends of SSE in Mexico and assess its association with social determinants of health and inequality using the social lag index (SLI) and the Gini index.

We conducted an ecological study using open data from the Morbidity Yearbooks of the General Directorate of Epidemiology and deaths from the General Directorate of Health Information from 1998 to 2022. Trends were analyzed using linear regression and correlation by Spearman's coefficient. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant.

The annual mean of cases was 270,420 SD ± 28,610. There were 1,212 deaths with no differences between sex (p = 0.17). A negative trend in deaths was observed (b = -0.0035, p < 0.05). In children under 10 years of age occurred 76.2% of deaths. The mortality rate by municipality and SLI were strongly positive correlated, r = 0.7, p < 0.0001 while mortality rate by municipality and Gini index were very weakly positive correlated, r = 0.1, p = 0.03.

Six states accounted for 73% and 75% of cases and deaths, respectively. Mortality analysis showed an apparent spatial clustering of deaths in six areas.