Healthy Living and Diabetes

EU Information and Cultural Center held a discussion on the topic of “Healthy Living and Diabetes”, as part of its campaign on environment and health.

The Endocrinologist and representative of Association of Kosovo Endocrinologists, Dr. Merita Emini Sadiku, said that modern dynamic life is making people eat unhealthy and fast food, with no physical activity, which has an impact on the spread of diabetes to all age groups. In addition to genetic factors, stress etc., overweight and obesity are one of the main factors that affect this disease, said Dr. Emini Sadiku. Regular meals rich in grains, fruits and vegetables have an essential role in treating diabetes, advises Dr. Merita Emini Sadiku.

Due to lack of a health information system in Kosovo, there are no accurate statistics on the number of patients suffering from diabetes. However, according to the head of World Health Organization, Skënder Syla, around 350 million people around the world suffer from diabetes, whereas 3.5 million people die each year. He emphasized the need to prevent the spread of diabetes through health education and increase citizens’ awareness about this disease.

Dr. Tahire Maloku Gjergji from National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) said that in addition to having the youngest population, Kosovo is lucky to have a low number of children with overweight and obesity. A NIPH research 2010 found that 3-4% of children are overweighed, whereas 1.2% are obese.

Besides the lack of statistics in Kosovo, there is a lack of reporting on patients, due to which no strategy on preventing and fighting diabetes is on place. The advisor to the Minister of Health, Izet Sadiku, said that the Ministry is trying to soon establish the health information system, which would guide policymakers into drafting relevant strategies. He informed that despite the low budget available to the Ministry of Health, the latter covers the insulin needs of all diabetic patients.