Angeles Cruz Martinez
sent
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday March 6, 2022, p. eleven
Solidaridad, QR., In the new normality, the focus of the health sector should be diabetes, a disease that grew exponentially on a global scale during the period of the covid-19 pandemic. In Mexico it was, before, a serious problem, so now it is urgent to take measures to detect and treat patients, specialists said.
The alert around this metabolic alteration exists even in countries like Denmark, recognized for having one of the best health systems in the world. Lars Steen, ambassador of that nation in Mexico, acknowledged that from the 1990s to date the number of Danes with diabetes has tripled and there is another sector with a high risk of having the disease, even in people between 25 and 30 years old, what was not seen before
Held.
The diplomat participated in the Forum of Leaders in Health, organized by the Novo Nordisk laboratory in Cancun, where around 300 doctors from different Mexican health institutions met. Now, Steen said, Denmark also stands out for the handling it has given to the issue of diabetes. Covid-19 is no longer a critical illness, there will still be patients, but with mild symptoms. Now comes another challenge with diabetes
he underlined.
He recalled that high glucose levels have also been the cause of serious complications in the infection caused by the coronavirus. The people who died had uncontrolled chronic diseases. Hence the importance of dealing with this other health emergency.
Anne Katrine Sorensen, health counselor at the Danish embassy in Mexico, announced the start of a collaboration with the country’s health authorities to replicate the care model for the disease that is carried out in the European nation.
The strategy will start as a pilot in a state of the Republic. It includes cooperation that facilitates the regulatory process for the incorporation of novel therapies and the strengthening of primary health care. It is about, he indicated, guaranteeing the continuity of services, with referral and counter-referral mechanisms, as well as promoting the use of telemedicine, among others.
He commented on the strategy applied in Denmark based on a national registry of people living with diabetes. The plan began in 2017 and has sufficient financial resources for prevention and detection actions, especially in young people, as well as to guarantee individualized care and treatment.
The work is coordinated by regional diabetes centers called Steno
which operate through public-private partnerships and where research is also carried out, and care is given to those affected.
Malaquías López Cervantes, professor of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), commented on the situation of the national health system and the challenge of dealing with this disease or other infections caused by viruses, when There is still no national health service that ensures the identification and treatment of people at risk of becoming ill or already suffering from a disease in the first contact units.
Incentives are needed for doctors to agree to go to work in the communities. He referred to the case of Denmark, where doctors receive higher salaries in first level units compared to if they opt for specialty hospitals.
He warned that with the new plan announced by the federal government, which will have as a pillar the scheme of the IMSS Welfare program, he commented that it is still not clear how people’s access to highly specialized services will be guaranteed, which is complicated even for beneficiaries of the institute in the ordinary regime.
