Three specialists discuss the difficulties that people with cancer have experienced during the pandemic and the measures that can be taken to combat it.
The main challenges faced by patients with Cancer during the pandemic in our country they range from access to health and oncology matters to overinformation with materials that can often differ from the opinions of doctors.
In the words of the executive president of the Mexican Foundation for Health, A.C, Hector Valle MestoDuring the health emergency, it has been found that there is difficulty in accessing medicines in some diseases, but also in infrastructure and access to health personnel, since many hospitals throughout the country have had to convert to covid areas, and by doing this, they have left hard-to-reach spaces to find where patients should go.
“Another point to highlight is that from very early in the pandemic there was talk that health personnel suffering from certain comorbidities or those who were older had to be separated from medical practice. This left patients without the same offer as always of doctors who had been available and who could give them treatment, “said the specialist during the panel virtual “Cancer in Mexico, how to face it in 2021“.
What can be done to face the Cancer during the pandemic?
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Fighting the Cancer during the pandemic: what can be done
Valle The city sees three key points that affect patients with Cancer during the pandemic: lack of access to health personnel due to the aforementioned separation, lack of access to medicines and reconversion of hospitals to care for covid-19.
The doctor of National Cancer Institute (INCan), Eduardo Cervera, adds two more points: the training of human resources for health and the timely detection of Cancer.
“Timely detection plays a crucial role. Cancer breast, for example, if you detect a woman or a group of women in stage 1, you are going to cure 95% at a cost of less than 100,000 pesos. On the other hand, if you detect them in stage 3 or 4, you will cure only 15% at a cost of approximately one million pesos per patient, “he explains. Cervera.
What is convenient to combat Cancer during the pandemic? Cervera points out that the timely diagnosis, but this has been neglected due to the issue of covid-19.
“Timely detection is not being done or patients are being cared for in the early stages. We should start to hatch from the covid shell and think that we have to re-convert our health needs little by little,” asks the expert.
Digital platforms play a very important role and Cervera mentions that these tools can help educate people and staff.
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Cancer during the pandemic: “society has to do its part”
The doctor Jorge Tanaka agrees with this and mentions that during the pandemic the use of some has accelerated, such as telemedicine, and learning through digital to update doctors and professionals in general.
However, he cautions that fighting Cancer during the pandemic It is not only the responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry and that people also have to do their part.
“It is an effort and a task that the whole society has to carry out. If society as a whole does not act and not only for one actor, this can lead to a more serious health problem. We must all be active protagonists,” he says Tanaka.
In the words of the experts to combat the Cancer during the pandemicwork must be carried out in conjunction with the government as the guiding axis, industry, organizations and foundations and society in general.
Cervera highlights that the pandemic has taught us that overcrowding is not necessarily good and that on the issue of CancerHe believes that he will have to stop being of large groups and guidelines.
“Talking about the” so “patient with him Cancer “such”. We have to modify that thought: if all the Cancer breast should be treated like this. Not that. Better: this kind of Cancer it should be treated like this. The personalized treatment of Cancer it’s a step, “says the doctor Cervera.
He adds that to combat Cancer during the pandemic Not only is it enough to have the internet, but the specialists and media that share information and deal with it must have three pedagogical elements: knowledge transfer, the application of knowledge and the change in the certification of knowledge, which does not remain with the counting the number of hours or whether or not the student was in the talks.
“We are in a highly computerized but not necessarily informed society. We have to rescue the role of the teacher at the private level. Information must be contextualized, validated, made and transferred,” he concludes.
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