We’ve had the privilege of featuring several folks in the global D-community over the past few months, and we’re really excited to bring you this latest edition from Serbia.
If you’re like us, you might need to check where Serbia is on a map. Formerly part of Yugoslavia, it’s located in the middle of the Balkans, land-locked 
and surrounded by nearly a dozen countries, including Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Our guest today is Ninoslav, who we featured a few weeks ago when he won the giveaway contest for Phil Southerland’s new book, Not Dead Yet. We’ve invited Ninoslav to share a bit more about what life with diabetes is like in Serbia:
A Guest Post by R. Ninoslav
My name is Raskovic Ninoslav and I have type 1 diabetes for 13 years. I live in Pancevo, Serbia, which is one of the countries that once made up Yugoslavia. Years of living through various wars and crises have affected the people in these areas. The number of patients suffering from chronic diseases is increasing daily and the health system has had a difficult time monitoring these changes. According to unofficial data, diabetes affects around 630,000 people in Serbia.
Realizing that people with diabetes have a lot of problems in daily life, four years ago I started a blog, called Beat Diabetes, with which I wanted to motivate young diabetics in Serbia not to surrender — and let them know that normal life with diabetes is just like any other. So far I have run seven marathons to show people with diabetes that they can do everything that other people can do. I realized that the Serbian society has a high level of discrimination towards patients with diabetes. There are no motivational lectures or counseling that should help those who were suffering from diabetes.
When you get diabetes in Serbia, you can’t get the right information on the treatments of the disease, due to overworked doctors who do not have time to devote to each patient properly. This is where the problems that later affect the health of the patient come from. Until a few years there had been counseling for the diabetic patients who were socialized and share various experiences but it was canceled by the order of the Ministry of Health. Now all these young people are left to themselves. They do not know of any doctors that they need to go and they just make big mistakes and we all know the consequences. Diabetics in Serbia haven’t got good education about living with diabetes.
The Serbian society has enormous prejudice and ignorance about people with diabetes, such as their opportunities for education and work. It often happens that when seeking employment with diabetes, people are rejected because of their illness. Employers confuse us with drug addicts and drunks. {wow! we added underlining} Because of this, many diabetics conceal their disease. They do not follow their therapy when needed and the result is poor control of disease and complications. In smaller cities, it is almost impossible to get a job, and children and students have a lot of problems in school.
The health insurance for most diabetics do not even cover the basic things needed to control diabetes:
- Test strips
- Only 3 boxes (150 test strips) are given to patients if they are younger than 26 years of age or to pregnant women
- Only 1 box (50 test strips) if you are older than 26 years
- If you have type 2, you are not even eligible for strips
- Needles for the pen
- 30-150 pen needles per month if you are under 26 years or pregnant women
- 30 pen needles if you are older than 26 years
- Insulin pumps are given to:
- Children with brittle diabetes
- Those with one of these three things: HBA1C higher than 7.5%, microalbuminuria and nephropathy
- Pregnant women who have one of these three findings HBA1C higher than 7.5%, microalbuminuria and nephropathy
Every 6 months, we go to the drugstore for supplies for the insulin pump. Every 5 years we can change insulin pumps, but then you have to go back to the Health Commission to apply as if it were the first time. It often happens that the pharmacy does not have supplies for insulin pump so that we are forced to go back to pen therapy.
There are many regional associations of diabetics who are not related to each other, but they have a clear common goal and a strategy. Fortunately the advent of the Internet established various sites and various forums where people with diabetes socialize together and share their own experiences. It helps them a lot to get the right information and to manage his own life. One such site is DiabetesMine.
Thank you for existing and receive greetings from all diabetic patients from Serbia!
Thank you for sharing, Ninoslav! Sounds like a daily struggle, and we’d sure like to help if we could.
Meanwhile, if any other readers out there would to tell us about life with diabetes in your country, please email us!
I dated someone from Serbia once… reading this helps me understand why his family was so strongly against us getting married. In fact they said specifically that he should not marry someone with diabetes. It was a major reason we broke up after several years. It was baffling to me that, even being highly educated, they would hold such a prejudice.
I am sorry for the struggles that people in Serbia face, both in getting social support and in attaining the required supplies. Congrats to you for your success and in paving the way to improve life for people with diabetes.
Great post. It is inspiring to read how different people around he world are coping with diabetes.
Associate Editor
JDCA
http://thejdca.org/Beliefs.html
Wow :/ Thank you for your post, Raskovic. I am an Italian in the US, and what I read makes me sad. I’m trying to think of initiatives that could possibly change the way diabetes is perceived and treated by the authorities in your country. Maybe the diabetes associations could have a key-role on this sort of cultural revolution. They could keep working on the spread of information about diabetes and its management. Concurrently, they could also play united to reach the Ministry of Health and open a discussion table where the needs of diabetics become a shared priority. My apologies if my view sounds naïve, but diabetics in order to have a life quality that is comparable to any non-diabetic human being’s can’t pretend not to have diabetes. They need more help from the government. With your blog you provide an important service to the diabetic community. Indeed, getting emotional support is really important when you deal with a chronic dysfunction. But that can’t be simply it, and I don’t want to think that things in your country will be this way forever.
Please, keep posting. I hope to read about an important reform of the health care system in Serbia, someday not too far away !!
I have had Type 1 for 33 years. As we all know it has not been easy. I know someone will tell me this is not the place to be policital, but this post is a great example of the need for REAL CHANGE.
The previous post said that diabetics in order to have a life quality that is comparable to any non-diabetic human being’s can’t pretend not to have diabetes. They need more help from the government.
WHAT? MORE help by the GOVERNMENT???
These posts from other countries break my heart because of the struggles they have. I just thank God to be in the US and have at least somewhat free market healthcare when I read the post by Raskovic and read the part about orders being “canceled by the order of the Ministry of Health!”
The Government does NOT HELP! It needs to get the heck out of the way and let FREEDOM truly help people. The Government is the most beauracratic, slow, ill-equiped, mismanaged, unconerned, NOT user driven, NOT patient driven example of anything in the world.
Why do people continue to think the Government is here to help them and after they see it fails them, they just want MORE?
I am so said for these people in other countries. Our systems has many failures but it is THE BEST IN THE WORLD. It needs to be changed, but not completely redone. Don’t cut of our nose to spite our face!
We DO NOT WANT OR NEED a Ministry of Health. I want and need my DOCTOR to treat me, not a Ministry of Health.
The posts from other countries are very interesting and should make us all want to Repeal Obamacare and get REAL REFORM.
Thank you, Raskovic for bringing this issue to the forefront. I remember when I was diagnosed 8 years ago and studying economics I came across this article “Insulin for the World’s Poorest Countries” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10752719) which stated that “The life expectancy for a newly diagnosed patient with type 1 diabetes in some parts of Africa may be as short as 1 year” I was profoundly moved by this and set on a course to study health as a human right. It’s not just Africa that is affected – it’s the world and so many countries that don’t have the resources that we do. Insulin isn’t that expensive to make, yet for various reasons (mostly to do with pricing) of course it’s not available for all of those whose lives depend on it – not just to live but to lead a full life. And beyond insulin, as you say, education that isn’t afforded to those who are diagnosed. It’s truly heartbreaking.
I had the amazing opportunity to go to an orphanage in Mostar, Bosnia in 2006. I was quite nervous about managing my diabetes and ensuring I ate a gluten free diet. I didn’t know if something happened who would take care of me, even with the hospital next to the orphanage (the only place I could find a phone to let my mom know I was ok). But what I found in that country was both inspiring and frustrating. I’ve never met as nice a people as I met in Bosnia (and I’m sure that’s true for all the former Yugoslavian countries). I never met people more welcoming and generous to help someone clearly out of their element. I never felt unsafe though the only travel guide I could find told me to be wary of land mines. I was astounded by the hope and kindness I found there.
But I was also frustrated. Bosnia and surely Serbia too (sorry If I’m grouping you together and should not be) are safe and lovely countries. Yet the world doesn’t see you. Since the war, no one has cared to reinvest in your countries and as such you are left with the sight of war torn countries and bombed out buildings next to ads for Coca Cola. The infrastructure has suffered the most and in that the health care that should be available to all who live there. To this day it brings tears to my eyes thinking that in so many countries people are dying from this disease – whether it’s because they can’t get to a doctor or they can’t get medicines and supplies.
I am so glad to know there are advocates like you who are working to raise awareness, especially for the young, about living a full life with type 1 and willing to fight some of the barriers and stigma associated with the misunderstanding of this disease. I want so much for this world to change, to recognize fully what it means to have health as a human right. And your contribution reminds me of the people I met in Bosnia, the incredible spirit that persists to help others.
Thank you again.
I read somewhere that the World Health Organization places the US on par with the same level of health care as Serbia. It doesn’t sound like it…anyone else hear this?
Anyway, I’m very touched by this post. I do agree that health is a human right-absolutely.
Sam- Despite the fact that we all don’t like it, everywhere medicine reflects the political asset of a country. You can have more or less free assistance depending on the country you live in, but that always depends on the authorities. The problem is that they should protect their people not deny the most important needs.
Companies always get paid for their products. I don’t think that patients on their own could fight the giants of industry and get what’s needed for free. It’s the government that should be their first advocate.
It took me awhile to adjust to the American health care system. But after reading these posts, although things could be easier, I feel lucky too to be in the US…
In mean time situation is not better, it is going worse and worse, I hope that Ministry of health will help us and that people with diabetes in Serbia will live better.