20% of Mexicans die from lack of medical care or medicine, according to experts

The shortage of medicines in Mexico has resulted in at least 20% of the people who died in the country in 2022 because they did not receive medical attention or did not find the necessary drugs, researchers estimated this Monday based on an analysis of official statistics.

“Unfortunately in Mexico, of the people who die it is estimated that almost 14% he didn’t have any medical attentionwhile almost 6% “They did not have access to medicines, which results in an alarming situation”said Manuel Mirassou, a specialist in metabolic syndrome and founding member of the Mexican Association of Bone Mineral Metabolism (Ammom), at a press conference.

The expert recalled that, according to the most recent report from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), in 2022 more than 847,000 deaths were recorded and the five main causes nationwide were heart disease, diabetes, malignant tumors, diseases liver and covid-19.

These figures, he noted, have occurred in the midst of a crisis due to the shortage of medicines in the health sector, which worsened in 2019 due to budget cuts and changes in the purchase of medicines by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who He assumed the presidency on December 1, 2018.

Furthermore, in 2020 the situation was complicated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which sparked protests and a political crisis for the Government.

Fabián Cortera, digital transformation leader at M8 Pharmaceuticals, pointed out that, according to company records, they have detected that the medications with the greatest supply problem are treatments for cardiovascular diseases and the central nervous system.

Faced with this situation, the laboratory presented its M8 Club Salud platform, which seeks to alleviate the shortage of this type of medicines and provide information to patients to encourage adherence to treatment.

“It is a digital platform to improve the health experience. It can be accessed from any device and allows you to identify the availability of medications that treat problems of the central nervous system, cardiometabolism, respiratory, gastroenterology and oncology.he explained.

By having a universe of 450 million smartphones in Mexico, this digital platform seeks to be an option to acquire specialized medications.

José Antonio Magaña, cardiologist, explained the importance of prevention, especially during aging, where health problems tend to appear and worsen due to environmental, epidemiological transition, demographic and socioeconomic factors.

“But there are also more and more cases, for example, of heart failure in young people,” he warned.

Given this, it is urgent to adopt changes in habits and lifestyles such as stopping smoking, avoiding alcohol, eating less saturated fats and salt, as well as controlling cholesterol levels and engaging in physical activity.