They affirm that 7 out of 10 people who have COPD are not diagnosed

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has a high level of underdiagnosis and the Argentine Association of Respiratory Medicine (AAMR) estimates that 70% of people who suffer from it in our country do not know it, while Juan José Soler Catalonia, Spanish pulmonologist, indicated that the best treatment to prevent it is "quitting cigarettes".

The AAMR also warned that in Argentina it is estimated that around 2.3 million people could suffer from COPD, according to the latest available figures.

According to the Epocar study, carried out in six conglomerates in the country, only 22% of those diagnosed in said study recognized themselves as patients with COPD, which indicated that underdiagnosis is more than 70%, a phenomenon that is replicated globally, they explained. .

In this regard, they stated that 35% of those surveyed were current smokers, while 35.3% are ex-smokers and 29.7% had never smoked, adding that there is a significant association between smoking and COPD.

Juan José Soler Catalonia -head of the Pneumology Service of the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, in Valencia, Spain, author of more than 140 publications and director of the COPD Health Plan of the Valencian Community- visited our country as part of the "100 years breathing together with GSK" in the province of Córdoba.

This doctor spoke to health professionals about his research on COPD and the development in Spain of the "Before" program, which seeks to optimize early diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

"COPD is a disease that has classically been described in the adult population. Most of the studies speak of a population over 40 years of age, that is, it is not usual for a child or adolescent to suffer from COPD", remarked the pulmonologist Spanish.

In dialogue with Télam, Soler Catalonia recalled that this phenomenon occurs as a result of the inhalation of tobacco smoke from smoking, which represents "between 80% and 85% of cases".

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COPD is the third leading cause of death in the world and the seventh leading cause of poor health (measured by disability-adjusted life years).

"This develops because one of the big problems is that the diagnosis of the disease is late and there is a high rate of underdiagnosis," he argued.