Having good health is important for every person. To maintain it, it is necessary to think about prevention.

According to the data of the organization itself, the primary, secondary and tertiary health care centers of the Ministry of Public Health (MHZ) handled slightly more than 1,022,000 outpatient consultations for hypertension morbidity. At least 20% of the population over the age of 19 in the country has high blood pressure, while 12.6% knew they had hypertension but did not take medication. Exercise, better nutrition and smoking cessation – if applicable – are among the recommendations for this risk factor.

The total number of consultations is 27 million, more than in the whole of 2020, the year most affected by the COVIV-19 pandemic. Data from MSP show that, in addition to hypertension, there are four main diseases with the highest morbidity: tooth decay, acute rhinopharyngitis, type 2 diabetes and urinary tract infection.

More than 2.8 million emergency services were also registered between January and July 2023 in the MSP network, 8.6% more than in the same period in 2022. Among the main causes are acute nasopharyngitis, acute tonsillitis, gastroenteritis and colitis of infectious origin, as well as like a stomach ache. Doctors also note that there is an increased presence of people in the emergency room due to viral diseases, and even state that this is due to resistance to flu vaccines.

The vast majority of these cases can be prevented (or postponed).

These are the hospitals that receive the most emergency patients in Guayaquil

‘We had a patient who they wanted to shoot in the head. (The bullet) entered one lung and exited the other’: 2.8 million hospital emergencies in Ecuador in the first half of 2023.

The promotion of health care through constant campaigns, information and work in the field, with an emphasis on prevention, is the task of the state and is included in the health budgets.

In fact, the Ministry of Public Health’s preventive consultations were 15.9 million. It is necessary to strengthen these areas and make citizens aware of the existence of this service that helps to avoid diseases and save money. A healthy society is more productive. (OR)