TIRANA, May 17 /ATA/ -“One in 7 citizens suffer from high blood pressure, one of the major causes of cardiovascular diseases.
On World Hypertension Day, Ministry of Health in conjunction with Public Health Institute organized the Scientific Forum: Medical Check-up in the framework of universal health coverage, which presented the findings after 4 –year implementation of national programme “How are you” for age group 35- 70.
“Thanks to Medical Check-up programme, the citizens’ access to family doctor has increased, doubling contact with the latter,” Minister of Health and Social Protection, Ogerta Manastirliu, said.
In her address, Manastirliu said this programme launched four years ago was part of the govt.’s vision to improve primary health care through real instruments with direct impact on well-being of the citizens.
Manastirliu underlined that in 4 years more than 90 thousand citizens have been referred to specialist doctor after the results of basic medical check-ups.
Today after 4 years, the data show that 1 in 7 people are affected by elevated blood pressure; 1 in 4 citizens have high cholesterol, therefore they are at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases; 1 in 6 cases have hyper-glycemia, which leads to diabetes mellitus; 1 in 30 citizens have problems with high alcohol consumption “, said the Minister.
Focusing on medical check-up data, Manastirliu said: “Medical check-up has revealed that more than 73,000 citizens are on pre-diabetes phase. Early detection of diabetes means that you can prevent the disease through life-style, healthy diet, excluding the treatment with medication. ”
For his part, director of World Health Organization for Albania, Raul Gorzales Montero, commended the programme of Medical Check which, according to him, has consolidated the function of primary healthcare and the role of family doctor.
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