The Croatian League Against Cancer, the City of Zagreb and the Croatian Institute of Public Health organised the Daffodil Day public health campaign on Saturday, which warns of the importance of preventing one of the most common fatal diseases in women, but also affects men, breast cancer.

As part of the campaign, mobile mammography was set up in Zagreb’s main square providing free scans. Part of the campaign involves the sale of daffodils as a symbol of the fight against breast cancer. The event is traditionally held on the last Saturday in March.

Health Minister Vili Beros expressed his support for the campaign, telling the media of the exceptional result achieved by the National Preventive Program of Early Breast Cancer Detection, which has reduced the mortality rate by 25 percent.

The fact is that this program detects tumour lesions in more than 60% of cases when they are small and localised, Beros said and thanked the HZJZ for organising this and similar campaigns and all associations and patients who, with their courage, determination and dedication to their healing, set an example of how to fight for the health of the nation.

Beros: Health care is a two-way street

Beros said that one must constantly think about prevention that can change the paradigm of the Croatian health system and can improve treatment outcomes.

He said that health care is a two-way street. The Croatian health system will take care of patients, but there is also the question of citizens’ awareness and responsibility regarding the need to come to preventive examinations, and the lives saved testify to this, he added.

We can achieve this only in cooperation with citizens and we believe that together we will achieve better outcomes, which is the goal of the reform by 2030 when treatment results should equal the EU average, said Beros.

Grbin: Government is extremely slow with numerous preventive programs

Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Pedja Grbin supported the public health campaign, underscoring that prevention is extremely important in the fight against breast cancer.

The state has to work on prevention, but the government is extremely slow with numerous preventive programs because some were abolished seven or eight years ago and have never been replaced by anything. Croatia is among the countries with the worst results at the EU level when it comes to prevention and mortality from cancer, warned Grbin.