There are about 190,000 people in Macedonia with diabetes, of whom 40,000 on insulin therapy, whereas the remaining 150,000 use tablets. The number of patients is constantly rising, heard an event observing World Diabetes Day on Tuesday.
"There is a rise in the number of children with diabetes. Many factors need to be taken into account, such as living quality, healthy habits etc", said Bojan Kirov, president of the Union of Associations of Diabetes Patients in Macedonia.
Endocrinology Clinic director Sasa Jovanovska Misevska said there is a rising global trend of diabetes patients, with about 415 million in 2015 and projections of up to 600 million by 2040.
"These mind-blowing numbers represent a challenge for healthcare systems across the world. We need to work more on introducing measures for prevention, such as healthy nutrition and increased physical activity", said Jovanovska Misevska.
The theme of World Diabetes Day 2017 is "Women and Diabetes - our right to a healthy future", i.e. improvement of health among women in the reproductive period.
"There are women who want to get pregnant but have diabetes. They need to be treated prior but also during the pregnancy", added Jovanovska Misevska.
Deputy-Health Minister Goce Cakarovski said he would invest efforts into quashing public dilemmas that diabetes patients in Macedonia use insulin of poor quality.
"We will make sure they regularly get insulin of good quality. There was a problem with the insulin, but I hope this will not be a case in the future", underlined Cakarovski.
