Diabetes has become the fourth most frequent cause of death in Croatia mainly due to chronic complications from late detection of the disease in patients, the national federation of diabetes-fighting groups said on Wednesday, in a news conference held to mark November 14, the World Diabetes Day.

Last year alone, more than 2,300 Croatians died from diabetes, with estimates saying that up to 40 percent of people suffering from diabetes are not even aware of the disease. This results in rising costs of diabetes treatments, which have increased by 2 billion kuna over the last ten years to 4.6 billion kuna per year.

The spending on diabates-related treatments currently represents 19.8 percent or almost a fifth of the entire public health care budget, with some 88 percent of the total amount used for treating complications caused by the disease, mainly those affecting the cardiovascular system.

About 300,000 patients living with diabetes are currently registered in Croatia, but their actual number is believed to be around 500,000.

“The number of diabetes patients in Croatia is growing steadily. Right now more than 9 percent of the entire adult population has diabetes, compared to 6 percent ten years ago. The fact that the death rate is also increasing shows that we are not successful in treating it,” general practitioner, Tereza Saric, said at the news conference in Zagreb.

Although all medicines for diabetes treatment are available in Croatia, the biggest single problem is the late detection of the disease, because by the time a confirmed diagnosis is made, most patients will have already developed complications, most often strokes and heart attacks.

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