Diabetes increasing strain on Hungarian health-care system

Budapest (MTI) – Type 2 diabetes is a growing epidemic in Hungary and unless the problem is properly addressed it will eventually put serious strain on the country’s health-care system, the state secretary for health care said at a press conference marking World Health Day.

The current health trends indicate that there will be 3 million people with type 2 diabetes in Hungary in ten years’ time, but treating this many patients would exceed the capacities of state health institutions, Zoltán Ónodi-Szűcs said.

He said the government will spend “whatever extra funds it can” to improve prevention and treatment of the disease.

Ónodi-Szűcs said 65 percent of the adult population in Hungary is overweight and 7.5 percent end up developing diabetes. Zsófia Pusztai, head of the World Health Organisation’s Hungarian office, said a healthy diet with a reduced calorie intake and more exercise can be enough to prevent type 2 diabetes for 20 percent of the people who are prone to it.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters