This disease is gaining momentum in Serbia, there are more than 700,000 patients and almost 40% do not know they have it!

Diabetes it is spreading unstoppably, despite great advances in diagnosis, therapy and prevention.

Figures show that more than 700,000 people in Serbia have the disease, but 36 percent of them do not even know they have it, it was noted today at the conference marking World Diabetes Day.

The main theme of this year’s celebration is how to reduce the risk of people suffering from the covid virus19 and, as the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health, Mirsad Đerlek, said, the objective is to make citizens aware of the danger That can be diabetes, even leading to disability.

According to him, people with diabetes are at higher risk if they contract the corona virus, so constant detection of the disease, constant treatment and, of course, prevention are necessary.

– They are a vulnerable category of patients, and the number of patients is constantly increasing, despite great advances in diagnosis, therapy and prevention. More than 460 million people in the world face this disease, said Djerlek.

The chairman of the expert commission for the prevention of diabetes, Nebojsa Lalic, said that the data shows that the result of death in patients with diabetes, who contracted kovid 19, is up to 50 percent more common than in infected people who do not have diabetes.

Lalic said that patients with type 1 diabetes, whose disease is under control, do not have an increased risk of contracting COVID-19, compared to the total population.

– The success of diabetes control is not only in the doctors, but also in the entire diabetes team, in which nurses and technicians play a special role. Very often it is they who bear the greatest burden of treating the patient, Lalic said.

He stated that 2020, before the emergence of the coronavirus, was declared the year of nurses, which is especially important for people with diabetes, because many aspects of communication between patients and the health system are assumed by a nurse, noted Dr. Lalic.

The president of the Association of Diabetics of Serbia, Milena Jovanović, pointed out that as more and more people suffer from diabetes, the responsibility of nurses is growing, as well as the entire professional team that cares for these people.

– Every day, the nurse invests great efforts and efforts to care for the patient, regardless of the disease he suffers, and the education of patients who especially suffer from diabetes is very important – he said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the Republic’s Commission of Experts on Diabetes distributed the instructions of the International Diabetes Federation on the behavior of patients during the coronavirus.