25. June 2021.
’I don’t think corona is over, challenges are yet ahead of us. I think that we relaxed mentally, nevertheless we don’t have sufficient number of vaccinated people to reach herd immunity’, pointed out the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia Ana Brnabić at the panel discussion ’Year of Changes – Health, Pandemic, Lessons Learned’ which has been organized today by Hemofarm company.
The results of the latest health survey of the Stada Group within which the largest Serbian pharmaceutical company operates, were presented at the gathering which was attended also by the Minister of Health, Zlatibor Lončar, Director of the World Health Organization Office in Serbia, Marijan Ivanuša and CEO of Hemofarm, Ronald Seeliger. Stada Health Report conveyed what citizens in more than 15 European countries, including Serbia, thought about the impact of the current Covid-19 pandemic to physical and mental health, their health and hygiene habits, as well as trust in healthcare professionals and conventional medicine. Today’s panel discussion is dedicated to the results of Stada’s survey related to opinions of the Serbian citizens about the mentioned topics and comparisons with the opinion of citizens of other European countries.
’Current pandemic reminded us of the purpose of the pharmaceutical industry, which is to save lives with our products’, stressed Ronald Seeliger, CEO of Hemofarm company adding that he was most concerned about the data from Stada's survey that during the pandemic, 26 percent of Serbian citizens cancelled their preventive check-ups.
Minister of Health, Zlatibor Lončar emphasized that he was extremely satisfied with the work of the healthcare system over the previous year and a half, when medical professionals showed great readiness to stand in solidarity and cooperate to help the citizens overcome the crisis successfully. The minister also urged the citizens to get vaccinated as soon as possible and emphasized once again that vaccines were safe. ’Over 99 percent of those down with corona in hospitals did not get vaccinated’, said minister Lončar and called the citizens to use the favourable epidemiological situation and do all preventive check-ups that they delayed due to the pandemic.
According to Marijan Ivanuša, Director of the World Health Organization Office in Serbia, the question is not at all whether the delta type of virus will arrive in Serbia, but when it will happen. ’What we should be worried about is how to get vaccinated today and please do not wait for the autumn’ said Ivanuša and warned that it was expected that 90 percent of all cases in Europe would be the result of infection with delta type of coronavirus by the end of August.
’By mid-June, five million doses of the vaccine had been used, and several hundred adverse reactions had been reported, most of them mild, such as fever or pain at the injection site. Do you know how many serious side effects have been confirmed? Only seven. If you compare 7,000 deaths with seven serious side effects of the vaccine, which were all treated and survived, then you know the safety of the vaccine,’ Ivanusa said, adding that Serbia did a great job during the pandemic.
The Prime Minister Brnabić emphasized that Serbia was on the right track, but that young people should get vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. ’Currently we have only 17 percent of vaccinated people under 30 years. If we do not invest an additional effort, we will become one of the vulnerable countries’, said Brnabić.
Results of the Stada’s survey on the impact of pandemic on mental health of citizens in Serbia were also presented at the panel discussion, and according to them, one third of respondents (31%) admitted that it has caused stress which led to internal unrest, while at the same time, almost identical volume of respondents (29%) said that they did not feel the impact of the pandemic to mental health. The CEO of Hemofarm said related to this that situation with Covid-19 significantly influenced the mental health of all citizens, therefore the campaign of Hemofarm Foundation ’Unbreakable’ was important for preservation of mental health within which professional support of psychologists and psychiatrists was enabled via free SOS number 0800 001 002.
