According to official data, as many as 23,187 people died in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) last year, and prominent cardiologist Elmir Jahic pointed out the alarming situation. As he emphasized, diseases from which people die in that entity can be significantly better prevented.
The FBiH Institute of Public Health recently published the Health Statistical Yearbook for 2022, and the President of the Association of Interventional Cardiologists Prof. Dr. Elmir Jahic especially highlights the chapter on mortality, that is, the number of deaths by disease.
“In organized systems, in which institutions function, plans for the functioning and financing of the health system are created, among other things, based on the representation of certain diseases in the total number of deaths, the tendency of the death rate of certain diseases to increase or decrease, as well as a comparison with the same parameters in other countries. In our conditions, plans for the provision of health services and the accompanying distribution of finances are very often created by non-governmental organizations and populist politicians, and not based on real needs, statistical parameters, and on the basis of profession,” said Jahic.
Data for 2022 show that as many as 23,187 people died in the FBiH.
“Diseases of the circulatory (cardiovascular) system are the leading cause of death and represent 45.1 percent of the total number of deaths from all causes of mortality (10,449 deaths). For comparison, on a global scale, that percentage is much lower and is about 29 percent. This means that the diseases that are by far the most fatal in our country can be significantly better prevented, diagnosed on time, and treated with better quality,” told Jahic.
Individually, by disease, the highest number of deaths were from acute myocardial infarction, 2,438 of them, then 1,926 people died due to confirmed coronavirus infection, and 1,755 lives were lost due to stroke.
1,553 people died due to essential (primary) hypertension, 1,037 due to malignant neoplasms of the bronchus and lungs, 908 due to chronic ischemic heart disease, 801 due to non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, 381 due to pneumonia unidentified microorganism, 321 due to malignant neoplasms of the breast, and 302 due to malignant neoplasms of the colon.
“If the position of the profession is still not respected and until we resolutely face the problem of unacceptably high mortality from cardiovascular diseases, and if our ‘strategies’ are created on the basis of populism and some other parameters and interests, it is certain that the citizens of BiH continue to die needlessly from these diseases,” said Jahic.
According to world statistics, BiH belongs to the countries of low socio-economic development, which unfortunately places it in the group of those with suitable soil for the development of cardiovascular diseases in the population.
Precisely because of this, prevention is extremely important, and for a long time, the entire healthcare system needs quality reforms that would lead to the preservation of human health, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
