IMSS ensures that COPD can be prevented

• May 4, 2024

Among the most common causes of death in Mexico is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) . This can be alarming to the naked eye. Fortunately, it can be prevented by reducing the risk factor's that provoke it, such as: smoking, exposing themselves to cigarette smoke, coal, wood or oil or to vapors of substances.

In an interview for GetQoralHealth , the doctor, Lilia Isabel Ramírez García explains some consequences of COPD:

According to experts from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), this condition increases in the cold season, since it is characterized by chronic obstruction which complicates the entry of air into the lungs. In its evolution (due to more frequent infections during autumn-winter), the patient may present respiratory distress said the doctor María Dolores Ochoa Vázquez , attached to the Pneumology Service of the High Specialty Medical Unit (UMAE) General Hospital, National Medical Center (CMN) La Raza.

The COPD affects approximately seven to nine million Mexicans over the age of 40, which is why Social Security provides pharmacological treatments specific to patients who present mild or moderate symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; for example, inhalers that are used to dilate the bronchi , stop the inflammatory process and allow a better expectoration.

For those who have the advanced condition (with respiratory failure), explained the pulmonologist Ochoa Vázquez, in addition to prescribing medications, the use of oxygen is added, which improves the quality of life of people.

The increase in the prevalence of the condition is due to smoking , which favors the advance of the disease, since the components of the cigarette damage the mucosa of the bronchi. On the other hand, infections Criticisms of the upper airways, such as the rhinosinusitis type, cause persistent inflammation when they are not attended to in a timely manner, so that in the long run they become chronic bronchial pictures .

The Mexican Social Security Institute provides support to people who smoke and want to quit, with sessions in the Smoker's Attention Clinic , located in the Cardiology Hospital of the National Medical Center (CMN) Siglo XXI.

The specialists of this Clinic have the objective of rehabilitating patients, for which they must go with their family doctor, who will channel them to receive treatment.

The Social Security pulmonologist reported that the disease manifests as cough with expectoration most of the days of the month, being able to be part of the clinical picture of chronic bronchitis; or, it can only be presented as a limitation due to lack of air (dyspnea) to physical activities.

Dr. Ochoa Vázquez said that in the face of winter, COPD is out of control and symptoms worsen (increased production of phlegm, cough or expectoration and shortness of breath), as people in general are more exposed to catarrh virus or bacteria, being more frequent in this group of patients.

He added that people with a diagnosis of COPD can manifest severe infectious diseases as pneumonia, accompanied by respiratory failure, putting people's lives at risk.

Therefore, the IMSS specialist exhorted to raise awareness that the tobacco smoke it generates direct disease on the lung and indirect on the organism; recommended to attend any cold or cough that lasts more than 10 days, avoid self-medication and go to the family doctor.

Source: IMSS
 

Video Medicine: analisis quimicos IMSS (May 2024).