It worsened in half of the patients, according to a survey accessed by Clarín.
Lack of access to controls and treatments, and stress as a trigger.
Florence Cunzolo
07/09/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Good Life
Updated 07/09/2021 14:10
In March, Teddy, a 63-year-old taxi driver, had to be hospitalized for three days to relieve
joint pain
.
Lucia, 11, had been without plaques on her body for almost three years.
The injuries
reappeared
last year, with the pandemic.
As soon as the health crisis exploded, Darío, a 46-year-old businessman, was about to be discharged from the psychiatric treatment he had received due to a severe breakout on his skin.
The quarantine prevented this process and
made things worse
.
For 16-year-old Valentina, not having to go to school is one less burden.
The exhibition is something that costs him from the first spots, which came just when he started primary school.
Her mother worries that this situation will hold
her back even more
.
For Silvia, journalist and founder of AEPSO,
harder and more rebellious plates
began to appear
and in places she had never had before.
Teddy, Lucía, Darío, Valentina and Silvia live with psoriasis.
In Argentina,
the disease worsened
in half of the patients during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey carried out by AEPSO (Civil Association for Psoriasis Patients).
The survey, the results of which were advanced to
Clarín
, was carried out in May.
Nearly
1,500 patients
from all over the country participated.
The objective of the association was to reveal the problems that people living with psoriatic disease (PD) faced and face during the Covid-19 pandemic, their needs, feelings and behaviors.
Red and scaly spots are one of the manifestations of psoriasis.
/ Photo Shutterstock
When comparing the degree of psoriasis activity at the beginning and during the pandemic, out of every 10 patients,
in five it worsened
, in four it did not change and only in one it improved, according to the findings.
The pandemic generated an enormous additional burden on patients with chronic diseases, those with which
they live, because they have no cure
, but that treatment helps to control.
People with cancer, with cardiovascular, dermatological, rheumatological diseases, with diabetes, among many other conditions, saw their situation altered as patients due to the implosion of the world as we knew it by the new coronavirus.
People with psoriasis go through problems common to all of them (many, in fact, are frequent comorbidities) and particular disadvantages of a disease in which
stress can act as a trigger
and in which skin lesions are just the tip of the iceberg. iceberg, the visible part of a systemic condition, which involves other organs.
"Today's doctors lost more or less between 35 and 40 percent of their patients. It is a lot of people who stopped being treated, but not only stopped treating their psoriasis," journalist Silvia Fernández tells Clarín Barrio, who has lived with psoriasis since he was 19 years old and has been in charge of AEPSO since 2005.
"A lot of people with psoriasis have other related diseases, like diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, high cholesterol, cardiovascular problems, obesity, arthritis, depression. This whole
damn combo
didn't get the attention it was supposed to receive, the patients didn't see the cardiologist, the endocrinologist, the dermatologist, the rheumatologist ", adds Fernández Barrio.
Some data in relation to these comorbidities of psoriatic disease: severe cases are
58% more likely to suffer a major cardiac event
, 46% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and 43% more likely to have a stroke.
In addition, one in three patients develop
psoriatic arthritis
, which is characterized by pain and stiffness in the joints, swelling in the fingers and toes, and difficulty in mobility.
The most frequently asked questions about psoriasis
Who does it affect?
Psoriasis affects 0.5 to 3% of the world's population.
In Argentina, according to the Global Atlas of Psoriasis, almost 400 thousand people live with the disease.
However, local specialists consider that the number is higher (previously it was estimated 800 thousand).
Psoriasis: affects more than half a million people in Argentina, according to the first global studyLeernota
Is psoriasis contagious?
No, it is not a communicable disease.
What Causes Psoriasis?
It is related to the immune system, there is a genetic predisposition and multiple environmental factors that trigger or aggravate the disease.
Are there different types of psoriasis?
Yes. The most common is plaque or vulgar psoriasis, which affects 80-90% of patients.
Is psoriasis cured?
No. It is a chronic disease, which usually occurs with cycles that include outbreaks - which last weeks or months - and then decrease or even go into remission.
There are multiple treatments to help control symptoms.
What are the possible treatments?
For cutaneous psoriasis there are multiple treatments depending on the type of psoriasis: local treatment: lotions, creams or ointment, they are usually used in mild psoriasis and as a complement to other treatments. In moderate or severe clinical forms, phototherapy or systemic treatments are indicated, in combination, rotational or intermittent. In the treatment of psoriatic arthritis, the use of therapies that improve symptoms related to joint pain and inflammation (NSAIDs), that modify the course of the disease (methotrexate, sulfasalazine) and improve the functional capacity of patients (program exercise and physical therapy). In certain patients, depending on whether the lesion is skin with or without joint involvement, different biological agents such as etarnecept, infliximab, adalimumab,efalizumab, alefacept. It is suggested to visit the specialist doctor who is the one indicated to determine what type of treatment is the correct one to follow.
Is psoriasis a disease of adulthood?
No. Psoriasis can also be diagnosed in childhood.
Psoriasis, on the skin of boysRead note
Are psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis the same disease?
Psoriatic arthritis is a clinical form of psoriasis that affects the joints.
It causes inflammation and swelling in the hands, feet, or joints such as the knees, hips, elbows, and spine.
70% of patients first present with skin psoriasis and then joint (15% present jointly and 15% only joint).
How is psoriatic arthritis diagnosed?
So far there is no specific test or analysis to recognize it.
Diagnosis is based on examining the skin and joints, clinical tests, joint X-rays, bone scan, and computed axial tomography.
What are the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis?
Joint pain and inflammation.
Stiffness and morning pain.
Swelling of the fingers and toes.
Alterations at the level of the nails.
General fatigue
In what forms can psoriatic arthritis occur?
Asymmetric: may involve few or several joints but not on the same side of the body.
Symmetric: It is similar to rheumatoid arthritis.
It usually affects even and symmetrical joints in the body. Distal interphalangeal: it primarily affects the fingers and toes, in the rcanal part of the nails.
Spondylitis is an inflammation of the spine that usually affects patients with psoriatic arthritis.
Inflammation is accompanied by stiff neck and waist. Mutilatingitis is a severe, deforming and destructive arthritis.
What are the particular characteristics of psoriatic arthritis?
Psoriatic arthritis is a specific type of arthritis that causes joint pain, stiffness, and inflammation.
It can appear on the hands, feet, ankles, and other joints.
Early diagnosis and treatment can improve pain and inflammation by delaying and preventing progressive joint damage.
Without treatment, the disease can potentially lead to disability.
Who treats psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis?
If the disease is only cutaneous, the dermatologists will be the treating physicians and if the commitment is only for the joint, the rheumatologists and, in case of skin and joint damage, the dermatologist and the rheumatologist together.
Medical card with professionals from all over the country who care for patients with psoriasis.
If I have one of them, do I inevitably have the other?
About 10% to 30% of people with psoriasis can develop arthropathic psoriasis.
A recent study reveals that a skin condition precedes arthritis by 10 years.
SOURCES
AEPSO
Argentine Society of Dermatology
Psoriasis is a chronic,
non-contagious
, inflammatory and autoimmune disease (it is the immune system that fails), so it impacts multiple areas of the body.
It generally manifests itself as
red spots with scaly skin
on its surface that cause discomfort and itching.
Lesions can appear anywhere on the body, with different forms of presentation such as plaques, drops, palmar, pustular, among others.
"What happens to us is that we
overproduce the skin
. People who do not have psoriasis normally change their skin approximately every 28 days, without realizing it. We change it in two or three days because we have an overactive immune system," he simplifies Fernández Barrio.
In his work as leader of AEPSO, he has spent years explaining to patients what the disease is about, helping them to solve procedures to access treatment and
establishing a bridge
with specialists from all over the country.
In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized psoriasis as a serious non-communicable disease.
The resolution underscored that too many people in the world
suffer unnecessarily
from psoriasis due to delays in diagnosis or misdiagnoses and insufficient access to care, which affects their quality of life and has an impact on public health.
All of those problems
deepened
as a result of the pandemic.
Patients, health professionals and civil society organizations agree on the description of the factors that contributed to worsening the disease and quality of life: the suspension of medical consultations in 2020 due to quarantine and complications to access treatments , whose interruption gives rise to
outbreaks and generates stress
that, in many people, favors the exacerbation of the disease.
Wheel stopped turning: controls interrupted
Almost 7 out of 10 respondents (67.7%) had medical check-ups scheduled for after the start of quarantine (on March 19, 2020): 43.3% were able to complete them (almost half made virtual consultations), that is, that
one in three did not access the controls
, mainly because the doctor was not attending or for fear of contagion.
"There are doctors who
did not leave WhatsApp or email
to their patients," says Fernández Barrio to graph how many patients were adrift and lost contact with the health system.
Regarding the emotional impact, half of those surveyed reported having felt
anxiety and uncertainty
about the pandemic.
Anguish appears in third place.
"The fear was enormous. Huge - the president of AEPSO insists -. Last year, when it all started, they
were terrified
. The phone literally wouldn't stop ringing."
"At the beginning of the pandemic there was a
lot of uncertainty
, both for patients and doctors," says dermatologist Cristina Echeverría, president of the Argentine Society of Psoriasis (SOARPSO).
At that time, the question that arose was "if the covid infection could be more risky in this type of patient, which even led some who were on immunosuppressive medication to
suspend it unilaterally
, both for fear of contagion, as of a bad evolution ", says Echeverría.
Psoriasis is a chronic disease of autoimmune origin.
/ Photo Shutterstock
Almost one in five (17.5%) of those consulted in the AEPSO survey acknowledged that they
stopped their medication on their own
due to fear of Covid-19.
"They are patients who, in many cases, were with systemic treatments that
allowed them to be well and without injuries
. Immunomodulators act on the entire immune system modifying the immune response, then in the face of fear - because before they were told that against infections they should consult your doctor - treatments were suspended ", agrees Alberto Lavieri, coordinator of the Psoriasis Working Group of the Argentine Society of Dermatology (SAD).
"Also, at first the doctors were quite confused about what to say to the patients. And some of these patients stopped attending the consultations. Why? Because they could not leave their homes and the offices were closed. This motivated that patients who were well and controlled will begin to have flare-ups of psoriasis, worsening of the disease and
everything that had been gained, it began to be lost,
"added Lavieri.
Thus, out of fear, due to difficulties in getting around, due to lack of access to the professionals who attended them or to medication, many suspended the treatment.
The consequences?
"
Their skin, joints were activated
and other comorbidities, such as diabetes, were often decompensated," says Verónica Savio, from the rheumatology team at Hospital Córdoba and member of the Psoriasis Arthritis Study group of the Argentine Society of Rheumatology (HE).
Lack of access to medication
As evidence was generated, there was no doubt that people with psoriasis were
not at greater risk from covid
, except for comorbidities, and that the treatments did not make them more vulnerable either (in fact, some studies showed that they offered them more protection compared to the general population).
In parallel, a bigger problem grew: the inconveniences that many had to go through to access the treatments that allow them to keep the disease under control.
The
bureaucratic obstacles
that they were used to
overcoming
multiplied in the context opened up by the health crisis.
"The terrible thing about the pandemic was that the wheel of the whole world stopped. The medications did not go where they had to go because they did not let the trucks pass, but it was also a fabulous opportunity for the payers not to fulfill their role.
They stopped giving the medications. more expensive
, but not only those. And it did not happen only in psoriasis, also in cancer, diabetes (that they changed the insulins) ", Fernández Barrio is indignant.
"What we do not want in this second wave is that ambulatory care is suspended, because many patients need the hospital to look for their medication. If the supply is cut, it becomes
a snowball that will not stop it anymore
, warns Savio.
Seven out of 10 consulted in the survey were undergoing some treatment for psoriasis when the quarantine began.
Those treatments were mainly with topical medications (creams) or methotrexate.
18.6% could not continue the medication
during mandatory preventive isolation (ASPO).
One of the main reasons they pointed out was the lack of delivery by the social work, the prepaid or the Ministry of Health.
And the health provider changed the medication without prior notice to 5.7% of the patients in treatment.
Many people with psoriatic disease -especially those with fewer resources, but not exclusively- began to
be locked into a spiral
that was adding rings.
"Psoriasis is a disease that manifests itself primarily on the skin. The suspension of treatments (which when abrupt can generate
a rebound effect
), stress due to the pandemic and the situation itself, lack of access to controls: everything leads to what we see is in many cases the worsening of the skin, "says Echeverría.
"But the most serious or the most serious - he emphasizes - are those patients who also have arthritis, which are 30% of patients with psoriasis, where the exacerbation of joint inflammation, in addition to being
disabling,
is risky due to the sequelae that can leave in the long run. "
"In all these pathologies with autoinflammatory characteristics, stress is a
fundamental trigger
: a patient who is stressed, emotionally or physically, in general, the disease is activated", points out Savio.
The specialists clarify, however, that
stress is not the cause
of psoriasis, that it has a genetic origin and that it can occur with remissions and exacerbations, in which different factors can act as triggers, stress is just one of them.
And at this time it is playing an important role.
"When the medication is delayed, I start to break out"
Darío learned to accept the disease.
Photo Fernando De la Orden.
Darío Yablancek is 46 years old, married, has three children and is employed in a chain that sells electrical appliances.
He has lived with psoriasis since he was 32, when the first plaques of what he did not know what it was ended up covering him completely in 15 to 20 days.
"It
was a whole stain
, because I got severe psoriasis."
She did not want to get close to her daughter because she believed - wrongly - that her condition was contagious, she
fell into a severe depression
(another frequent comorbidity in people with psoriasis), she did not want to go outside.
He knows what it is to suffer the disease: he has come to stain the sheets with blood because his skin was ripping, he has spent winter days in shorts and a T-shirt because he could not dress.
He was hospitalized several times for
severe outbreaks
.
Over the years, he began to "make friends" with the disease, to accept it, knowing that he has to be prepared for its attacks.
Biological drugs - they are the latest generation of drugs - led to a change in their quality of life.
That is why the problems in accessing them
unbalance him physically and emotionally
.
"When they start to delay delivery,
I start to sprout
, because I trust the medication. I get anxious and I start to see spots," he tells Clarín.
In 2019 he was hospitalized for complex erythroderma because they did not give him the medication.
It took 10 days to stabilize it
.
A month later they approved the treatment with which he began to improve.
While the injuries were "fading" in his body, he was undergoing psychiatric treatment to attend to the emotional part.
"When they were about to discharge me, the pandemic appeared. My psychiatrist was stranded in Peru, he could not sign it. I stayed at home doing zoom therapy. The quarantine days were adding up, and I wanted to go to work because For me it is a therapy. June came and nothing.
I started to break out again
. I have to renew the medication every six months. With my dermatologist it was all on WhatsApp too. Until I could see him, get the permits, they sent me to hospital again a week for a big outbreak. Until they gave me the biological one. After a month the outbreak began to decrease, "he recalls.
El alta que debía llegar en marzo, recién la tuvo en agosto, como consecuencia de la pandemia.
Darío realiza tareas administrativas desde su casa en González Catán para el local situado en Balvanera. Se encarga también del cuidado de sus hijos."Tengo asumida la enfermedad, estoy en tratamiento, estoy trabajando. Tengo mi mente en el trabajo. Y haciendo las cosas de la casa", dice.
Hace años que dejó de responder que es "una alergia" cuando alguien le pregunta por sus placas, ni las esconde con mangas largas aun en pleno verano. Llama a la enfermedad por su nombre y se convirtió en un referente en su entorno sobre la patología.
Pero cada seis meses se enfrenta a un combo que puede volverse explosivo. "Siempre que tengo que renovar la medicación me produce tensión porque la obra social da muchas vueltas. Cuando me empiezan a demorar, me pongo loco. Es una medicación muy cara y dan vueltas".
Para intentar relajarse, Darío suele escuchar música clásica o sonidos de lluvia, que le permiten conciliar el sueño cuando las preocupaciones interfieren con su descanso.
El psicólogo e instructor de mindfulness Martín Reynoso afirma que en las enfermedades crónicas, como la psoriasis, es fundamental cultivar la aceptación y reducir el estrés.
¿El objetivo? Enfrentar el dolor que va más allá de lo físico, es decir, "el 'agregado mental', una experiencia innecesaria de no poder aceptar lo que me está ocurriendo y desear que las cosas sean de otro modo".
"El mindfulness, entrenamiento meditativo que intenta reducir la reacción al dolor o al estrés, ha demostrado tener buena respuesta de los pacientes con psoriasis que lo practicaron. Mientras eran sometidos a fototerapia mostraron una evolución más rápida que el grupo control que no practicó con los audios de mindfulness", apunta Reynoso, director de Train your Brain.
"Los dolores eran infernales"
Aldo "Teddy" Sánchez tiene 63 años y vive en Santa Fe con sus hijos y su mujer. A los 18 empezó a tener placas, a los 40, además, se sumaron los dolores articulares provocados por la artritis psoriásica.
"Con los medicamentos, mi piel está sana. Muchos dicen 'estoy limpio', a mi no me gusta decir eso, porque me baño todos los días. Pero estuve muy mal en marzo cuando no me dieron la medicación. Estaba brotado todo mi cuerpo, los dolores eran infernales, no me dejaban trabajar", dice Teddy.
Antes de la pandemia, no había tenido problemas para recibir la medicación. Pero el año pasado recién comenzaron a dársela en agosto, cuenta. "En 2021 me dieron medicación por tres meses."
En marzo de este año tuvo que ser hospitalizado. "Estuve internado porque el IAPOS no me reconocía la medicación (las inyecciones, los biológicos). Como no me la daban, me iba poniendo cada vez más nervioso, quedé internado tres días por los dolores. Con toda la pelea que hizo la médica, me reconocieron el medicamento", cuenta.
Verónica Savio, desde Córdoba, lamenta la burocracia a la que deben enfrentarse muchos pacientes para acceder a esos tratamientos que marcan la diferencia entre convivir con la enfermedad y padecerla. "La indicación está y probablemente se los van a dar, pero a veces es tan engorroso lo que tienen que pasar para acceder, y más en pandemia, que eso ha generado angustias".
"Si tenés un paciente que tiene la piel exacerbada, compromiso de artritis (dolor, rigidez, entumecimiento matinal), su calidad de vida está totalmente afectada", señala.
"Y cuando está activa la enfermedad, es una enfermedad inflamatoria per se y aumenta el el riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular, de ateroesclerosis acelerada. No es solo que uno le quiere calmar el dolor al paciente, sino que necesitamos que se controle la enfermedad, la inflamación, para mejorar la calidad de vida, la funcionalidad y evitar las consecuencias de una enfermedad no tratada o subtratada".
Teddy lo relata en primera persona: "No podía salir, no podía caminar, no podía hacer nada. Además de que la artritis no me deja caminar demasiado, ni trabajar tanto. Trabajo hora y media y paro para caminar un cuadra. Siento mucho cansancio. Vivo cansado. A la mañana me cuesta levantarme".
La actividad física ayuda, pero en marzo debió dejar acquagym. "Estoy perdiendo fuerza y masa muscular en una pierna, me doy cuenta porque cada vez me cuesta más apretar el embrague", afirma.
Según la encuesta de AEPSO, actualmente 6 de cada 10 consultados no realizan actividad física. Alrededor de un 30% que ejercitaba antes de la pandemia, dejó de ejercitar en la cuarentena, y aún hoy no volvió a ponerse en movimiento.
A Teddy, su médica le aconsejaba no salir a trabajar en el peor momento de la pandemia. Pero él necesita hacerlo para tener ingresos ("no me queda otra").
Y ahora tiene que renovar la autorización de la medicación cada tres meses. "Cada vez peor", se lamenta.
En la piel de los chicos
Con la pandemia, Lucía volvió a tener lesiones. Foto Fernando de la Orden.
No eran manchitas provocadas por el sol las que aparecieron en la cara de Lucía en el verano de 2017, cuando estaba por entrar a primer grado. Llegó a tener casi todo su cuerpo comprometido.
Pasó de la medicación tópica (cremas y ungüentos con corticoides) a la sistémica (metrotexato), fue controlada de cerca por la dermatóloga especializada en psoriasis infantil Paula Luna, y ella y su familia recibieron acompañamiento terapéutico.
Un año después, las lesiones habían desaparecido y gradualmente fue dejando la medicación hasta abandonarla por completo.
"No volvimos a tener noticias de su psoriasis hasta el año pasado. Consultamos con Paula ante las primeras lesiones y las fuimos tratando con corticoides tópicos. A mediados de año, ya con varios meses de confinamiento, comenzaron a exacerbarse las lesiones, otra vez en el contorno de su cara, cuero cabelludo y algunas en sus brazos y piernas", cuenta Bárbara Puente, mamá de la nena de 11 años.
Y continúa: "Era claro que Lu no la estaba pasando bien, fueron meses difíciles para todos, tratando de adaptarnos a la nueva realidad, congeniar el trabajo (su papá y yo somos docentes y trabajamos todo el año en modalidad virtual), con las clases y su hermana que cursaba primer grado. Creemos que todo eso tuvo un gran impacto en Luli en lo emocional y puede haber sido un factor desencadenante para su psoriasis, nuevamente".
Con la médica decidieron retomar la terapia con metrotexato, que había resultado exitosa en el primer brote. Pero esta vez los resultados no fueron los esperados y decidieron pasar a la terapia biológica, a la que accedieron sin mayores dificultades. "Hoy la recuperación es casi total y ya no tiene lesiones o placas activas", comenta Bárbara, feliz.
Bárbara y Lucía, que empezó una nueva terapia en plena pandemia para controlar un brote. Foto Fernando de la Orden.
Para Luna, dermatóloga pediátrica de los hospitales Ramos Mejía y Alemán, lo que más perjudicó a los pacientes con psoriasis infantil fue la falta de acceso a especialistas y a tratamientos específicos, especialmente en familias de menores recursos.
"Creo que esa fue la manera más importante en que afectó la pandemia a los niños con psoriasis. Ya que los tratamientos de psoriasis pediátrica (al igual que de adultos) requieren que el especialista esté relativamente entrenado en el abordaje de esta patología, que conozca las alternativas terapéuticas, las opciones acordes a la severidad."
Es que, explica, "algo muy conocido en las enfermedades crónicas en general, pero en la psoriasis en particular, es el subtratamiento. Un poco por la adaptación de los pacientes y otro poco por la falta de acceso a un especialista entrenado que pueda decirle 'esta es la mejor alternativa' y no que lo deje subtratado con opciones que no logran una remisión o un control adecuado de la enfermedad".
Pero para Luna, la pandemia también tuvo una cara amable para niños, niñas y adolescentes.
"Especialmente en el inicio, impactó de manera positiva porque podían no mostrarse, que es algo que les da mucha vergüenza a los pacientes con psoriasis, no tenían esa necesidad de exponer su piel y podían hacer tratamientos un poco más engorrosos en casa, como ponerse cremas y ungüentos más pesados, ya que no tenían necesidad de salir temprano vestidos para ir al colegio", señala.
Y añade que a otros pacientes la no presencialidad y la menor exigencia escolar los favoreció, "porque a algunos les trae un gran estrés y eso tampoco colabora con la psoriasis".
Es el caso de Valentina, de 16 años, la última de cinco hermanos y la única que vive en casa con su mamá Gladys y su papá. También su historia con la psoriasis coincidió con el comienzo de la escuela primaria. El primer brote fuerte que sufrió la dejó casi al borde de la internación.
-¿Cómo la afectó la pandemia?
-Tiene unos pequeños brotecitos y enseguida lo atacamos con algún tópico, alguna crema. Ella tiene una psicóloga que la está ayudando en la parte emocional porque hay que trabajarlo mucho. Todo lo que implique emociones que a ella le puedan provocar nerviosismo, miedos, todo acelera el proceso de psoriasis -comenta Gladys-.
No sale a ningún lado -añade-. Es un poco retraída, seguramente por su enfermedad. Es lo que aprendió de chiquita, porque la mirada del otro en la calle, en la escuela, la hicieron sufrir mucho. No salía mucho antes de la pandemia. Ahora hace todo por teléfono, por computadora. De vez en cuando, se junta en una plaza. Por suerte pudo manejarlo bastante bien con el tema de no brotarse tanto. Entre el acompañamiento psicológico, bastante bien lo está llevando.
A Valentina, cuenta su mamá, no le piden que se conecte a las clases, solo tiene que entregar trabajos. Por un lado, siente que eso la benefició, porque le cuesta mucho hablar en público. Sin embargo, también lo ve como un arma de doble filo. "No me gusta tanto eso porque yo quiero que ella se integre, no que se aísle, pero es lo que encontramos para que ella esté tranquila".
La psoriasis no tiene cura, pero sí tratamiento. / Foto Shutterstock
Un buen control
"Un paciente bien controlado es el que tiene cubiertas todas las áreas: diagnóstico adecuado, acceso a consultas y medicamentos, que se mantengan en el tiempo (que no se corten), para que una vez alcanzada esta mejoría, se pueda sostener en el tiempo", responde Cristina Echeverría, desde la Sociedad Argentina de Psoriasis.
Todos esos factores se vieron interrumpidos o con dificultades por la pandemia.Por eso, subraya la importancia de que los pacientes retomen, en el caso de que todavía no lo hayan hecho, el contacto con el sistema de salud: "Que no tengan temor de consultar y que se apoyen en las asociaciones de pacientes, que también cumplen un rol fundamental".
Un rol que se intensificó durante la pandemia, reconoce Fernández Barrio. "Es nuestra función, somos el colchón, nosotros estamos ahí para esto, para recibir, para que nos llamen, para escucharlos. Estamos entrenados para hacerlo, trabajamos en eso".
En AEPSO reciben 9.000 consultas anuales, el 80% en busca de profesionales especializados en atención de la enfermedad psoriásica. En el sitio web está disponible una cartilla online con médicas y médicos de todo el país, que trabajan en instituciones públicas y privadas. Y también atienden consultas en el 0800 22 AEPSO (23776).
DB
