Special pulmonary ventilators, which were not available in the country so far, have been donated by the Embassy of Slovakia. Several children have already been cured thanks to the use of that type of ventilators, said Health Minister Venko Filipche on the occasion of the International Children’s Day in front of the Skopje-based University Clinic of Children’s Diseases on Tuesday.
“Thanks to that cooperation, an expert team visited a hospital in Bratislava and gained experience that they share with their colleagues,” said Filipche and thanked the partner Alkaloid AD that has supported the development of every segment in healthcare system for years, especially in donations in the part of reconstruction of the Clinic of Children’s Diseases, equipment and medicines.
Filipche said that the goal of the event is to summarize what has been done so far and the plans for the future. The Clinic of Children’s Diseases is the leading institution for the treatment of pediatric diseases, including experts and medical professionals have been working for years. The Ministry of Health provides support in renovation of many departments such as the intensive care unit, the neonatology unit, haemato-oncology unit, and complete renovation of the oncology unit is underway, Filipche said.
He noted that they are introducing a new therapy like the one for some of the children suffering from cystic fibrosis called Kalydeco that, as he explained, is already giving excellent results.
“The process of transplantation is also progressing. Allogeneic transplantations have been performed in 16 years old children in the past two years in cooperation with the Clinic of Children’s Diseases and the Clinic of Hematology. The treatment of 90 children with post-COVID symptoms is very successful and I believe it will be a motivation for all colleagues to work even harder and to follow trends in the medicine,” Filipche added.
Slovak Ambassador to North Macedonia Henrik Markuš said that the high-quality ventilators, at a cost of €25,000 each, have been provided to the country. He also noted that they have been produced by a Slovak company and transported to North Macedonia as part of contribution to NATO Pandemic Response Trust Fund.
“The goal is to save as many lives as possible. The director of the Clinic of Children’s Diseases Aspazija Sofijanova, has recently visited Slovakia and had a special training in the use of ventilators,” Markuš noted.
Clinic’s director Sofijanova stressed that the celebration of the International Children’s Day means the children’s smiles.
“We want to develop the University Clinic of Children’s Diseases into a regional center for the treatment of all diseases, especially the specific ones. The specific role of the treatment of children will be the unit of intensive care and therapy, the other units where rare diseases are treated, the post-COVID-19 care units with which we have shown that this country is successfully dealing with this pandemic,” Sofijanova said.
