HCG calls for timely attention to COPD and awareness of antimicrobial resistance

El Civil Hospital of Guadalajara (HCG) He called on the population to join in the prevention of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and awareness of antimicrobial resistancediseases for which the health institution prepares campaigns.

Dr. Antonio Gerardo Rojas Sánchez, Head of the Pulmonary Physiology and Inhalation Therapy Service of Civil Hospital of Guadalajara “Fray Antonio Alcalde”He explained that the aim is to focus attention and prevention on these issues, in light of the World COPD Day, to be celebrated on November 19.

“It is a potentially preventable disease because 80 percent of the people who develop it are associated with tobacco use"In other words, they will develop it sooner or later," he reported. 

The remaining patients cite the disease as their cause. Environmental pollution, inhalation of wood smoke, and a genetic alteration due to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD).

Rojas Sánchez emphasized that, within the epidemiology of COPD, smoking is the most important risk factor; in addition to cause vascular disease, at the level of the central nervous system and diseases of the cardiovascular system, such as chronic ischemic disease, a very important public health problem in Mexico.

“In an early stage of the disease there is a respiratory function test, spirometry, to Detecting the disease at earlier stages, and receiving timely and appropriate treatment that improves quality of life”, he stressed.

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Eight percent of the population in Mexico suffers from COPD, and the figure increases in people over 40 years of age.Between 2022 and 2023, 779,000 deaths were recorded in Mexico due to this cause, of which 18,605 occurred in Jalisco.

Regarding World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week, Dr. Rodrigo Escobedo Sánchez, Head of the Adult Infectious Diseases Service at the HCG “Fray Antonio Alcalde”, explained that resistance occurs when Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites stop responding to antimicrobial agents.. 

“It is important to disseminate all the information to the community, to the population, to the health sector personnel, that when antimicrobial therapies are applied when they are not necessary, they can lead to resistance, a situation that It has caused nearly a million deaths from infectious diseases that have a pathogen associated with resistance."He explained.

Escobedo Sánchez said that in practice Everyone has access to antibiotics, This is generating resistance; in medical practice, he explained that doctors prescribe antibiotics for viral diseases and called for a comprehensive assessment.

“There is an increase in cases of antimicrobial resistance and, worse still, We are running out of treatment tools"In other words, antimicrobials take roughly 10 to 15 years to develop; by 2020 there should be 20 new antimicrobials, of which, unfortunately, we only have seven on the market, and in Mexico, not even half of them," he concluded.

Attentively 
"Piensa y Trabaja"
“1925-2025. A Century of Thinking and Working”
Guadalajara, Jalisco, November 14, 2025

Text: Adrián Montiel González
Photo: Edgar Campechano Espinoza | General Coordination of Social Communication UdeG