The Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement and for the past decade Yucatan it has become one of the states with the highest number of diagnoses in the entire peninsula.
According to the Ministry of Health, the disease also known as “Parkinson disease” occurs when neurons do not produce enough dopamine, a very important substance for brain function.
This condition is chronic and incurable, that is, it persists and its symptoms worsen over time, even becoming incapacitating.
Symptoms include tremors in the face, jaw, hands, arms, and legs; slowness in movements; balance and coordination problems; and stiffness in the limbs and trunk.
Yucatan, peninsular leader in Parkinson’s cases
Parkinson disease
According to the National Epidemiological Bulletin of the federal agency, since 2014 Yucatan has presented a greater number of diagnosed Parkinson’s cases among its population, compared to Campeche and Quintana Roo.
At the end of 2022, Yucatán reported a total of 200 diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease, while Campeche only had 77 and Quintana Roo 70. A year earlier, the same entities reported 114, 55 and 46 new patients with Parkinson’s, respectively.
During 2020, due to social confinement and the absence of people in hospitals due to the arrival of Covid-19, diagnoses of this condition decreased in Yucatán, reaching only 43 cases throughout the year. However, in the same year Campeche reported only 33 patients with this disease and Quintana Roo 19.
The trend in which Yucatan exceeds the other two entities of the peninsula is the same for consecutive years, until 2014 in which it began to be counted in the Bulletin of the Ministry of Health. During that first year of registration, 116 Yucatecans were diagnosed with this disease, while in Quintana Roo there were 60 and in Campeche 21.
So far in 2023, the federal agency has already reported a total of 25 new cases of parkinson in Yucatan. Until epidemiological week 12, Quintana Roo has reported 18 new patients with this disease and Campeche 14.
Treatments for Parkinson’s
Parkinson’s symptoms
Dr. Alejandro González Muñoz, in charge of the Neurology Department of Hospital Juárezexplained that although there is no cure, the Parkinson’s disease It can be treated with medications that are recommended depending on the patient’s presentation, in addition to surgical treatment.
“We only use surgical treatment in those cases where it is required, because not all patients are candidates for this treatment, they must go through a protocol in which it is established that they no longer have a good reactivity to the drug or they begin to have problems with them,” he commented.
New study for better treatment
What is Parkinson’s disease?
Being the second most common neurological condition in Yucatan (after Alzheimer’s), the Regional Research Center “Dr. Hideyo Noguchi” from the UADY began a research project to understand the molecular and functional bases of Parkinson’s diseasein order to develop effective therapies.
The project coordinator, Claudia Barrero Solís, reported that for the research, they work with 40 patients diagnosed with the disease and that meet certain characteristics to be analyzed.
The project called “Effectiveness of a combined physical exercise program on gait, balance and cognitive function in patients with Parkinson’s disease”, aims to deepen the knowledge of the causes and mechanisms of the disease, as well as find new therapies possibilities that could be applied in the different stages of this condition.
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World Parkinson’s Day
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in 1997 that April 11 of each year as World Parkinson’s Daycoinciding with the anniversary of the birth of James Parkinson, a British neurologist who in 1817 described the disease that at that time was called Shaking Palsy.
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