The program to equip primary care physicians with glucometers has started in Vitebsk

July 24, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. An initiative to equip primary care physicians with glucometers has been launched in Vitebsk, Vladislav Podpalov, chief freelance cardiologist of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Healthcare Department and professor at VSMU, told a BELTA correspondent. Today, the first batch of express blood glucose meters was handed over to doctors at Polyclinic No. 3 in the regional center. Now they will be able to perform analyses directly during appointments without sending patients to the laboratory. 50 devices were donated free of charge by the Russian enterprise "Eltа," which sponsored the initiative. In the future, it is planned to equip other polyclinics in the city with similar devices. Speaking about the significance of this initiative, Vladislav Podpalov noted that diabetes mellitus is an endocrine system disease, and patients primarily die from cardiovascular complications. In Belarus, as worldwide, there is a trend towards its significant prevalence. In the Vitebsk region, for example, about 26,000 patients with this pathology are currently registered, and about 2,500 new cases of diabetes are detected annually. "However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The actual prevalence of this disease is several times higher," the professor emphasized. This is due to the low level of blood glucose monitoring in the population and, consequently, the low detection rate of diabetes. Equipping primary care physicians with glucometers is one of the significant steps to rectify the situation, he concluded. -0-