Saul Maldonado
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, November 14, 2026, p. 22
Durango, Dgo., Alicia, just 15 years old, began to experience excessive thirst, constant sleep, hunger and headaches a few days ago. Her parents took her to the doctor and after an evaluation, she was referred to an endocrinologist. The diagnosis came after a series of studies: diabetes.
The teenager did not know exactly what it meant to have this disease, but upon observing her parents' reaction, between denial, questioning, worry and fear, she also began to feel afraid.
Until then he had led a seemingly normal life. He was not overweight, he ate the usual food at home and, according to his family, maintained healthy habits.
However, last week he received a diagnosis that will change his life, since now he will have to learn to live with insulin and the glucometer.
Alicia's story is real, although her name was changed to protect her identity, and reflects a situation that is increasingly common among children and adolescents in Durango, where records show a considerable increase in people diagnosed with this chronic and metabolic condition.
According to the Epidemiological Bulletin of the federal Ministry of Health, corresponding to week 43, ending November 9, 2026, the entity accumulated 10,523 cases of type 1 and 2 diabetes, which represents a growth of 38.9 percent, compared to the same period in 2025, when there were 7,575 cases.
Added to this panorama is the mortality associated with the disease. During the first quarter of 2026, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography counted 338 deaths due to diabetes in Durango, placing it, along with heart disease, among the main causes of death in the entity.
Francisco Javier Mina, president of the United Learning to Live with Diabetes Association, pointed out that Alicia was diagnosed just last week, and warned that similar situations constantly arise among the child and youth population.
Weakened pancreas
"Right now (diabetes) is causing a lot of problems in children and young people, and there are many factors here; they can be bad eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle, not exercising, but also other problems, such as a weakened pancreas," he explained.
Alicia is not the smallest patient that has been identified in Durango. Mina indicated that there are cases of minors as young as five years old, even without one of their parents having a history of the disease.
He explained that there have been known cases of children without a family history, in which complications following respiratory tract conditions were identified that, according to the aforementioned studies, would have affected the functioning of the pancreas.
This organ produces the insulin that the body needs to regulate blood glucose levels, so alterations in its functioning can compromise the control of this substance.
Currently, the United Learning to Live with Diabetes association has 94 patients and works on training minors and their families so that they know the care, treatments and measures necessary to live with this condition.
