Overview
- New national data estimate more than 2.3 million Argentines live with COPD and about 77% remain undiagnosed, according to the EPOC.ar1 survey and the Respiratory Health Initiative.
- Professional societies launched a nationwide drive offering free spirometry to spur earlier detection and direct patients into care pathways.
- Experts report that spirometry, required to confirm COPD, is often unavailable in primary care, contributing to late detection and frequent diagnostic errors.
- Advocates urge a funded national program, a registry, decentralized pulmonary rehabilitation, stronger tobacco‑cessation services and equitable access to long‑acting treatments.
- A global briefing underscored stigma and misframing that overemphasize smoking—despite many patients never having smoked—and cited a worldwide burden of roughly 391 million people and very low rehab access in many countries.