General doctors, nursing staff and community network members, participated in the Diabetes Mellitus workshop that the Ministry of Health developed with the support of Mexican specialists in that issue.
Francisca Rivas, director of the National Ophthalmology Center, who also participated in the workshop explained that diabetes is a disease that is in the first 10 causes of death in the country and stressed that one of the most common complications of whom suffering from this disease isDevelop diabetic retinopathy or blindness.
"Diabetes being present in the person affects several organs, first affects the eyes, then kidneys, nerves and skin. Our concern is that patients with diabetes increase every day and reach the national center when we can no longer do anything"Rivas said.
"That is why today we have two ophthalmologists addressing this issue to provide the necessary tools to both health personnel and the community network. The important thing here is prevention because diabetes can be prevented," he said.
Rivas said that the diabetes problem is related to unhealthy lifestyles, "it is related to what we do, what we eat, we have to educate the population that instead of soda, Coca Cola, let's make anatural soda;
He explained that between 500 and 800 patients are treated at the National Ophthalmology Center, of which a large percentage have diabetes problems.
For his part, Dr. Pedro Gómez, director of the Vision Institute of the University of Monte Morelos, Mexico, indicated that diabetes is already a serious problem in his country being the first cause of death, and in Central America it is expected that thisdisease is a serious health problem.
Gómez said that one of the main failures is that people are changing life styles, where there was enough physical activity now there is a lot of sedentary lifestyle.
In addition, he explained that food, junk food, sugary drinks and factors such as anxiety and stress cause the diabetes problem to begin to shoot.
