Romania further lags behind other European states by the nation's health, reveals an analysis published in the4 second issue of the Romanian Journal of Bioethics.

Thus, a child born in Romania in 2007 was running a risk to die before his/her first birthday six times higher than a peer of the same age born in Sweden, and almost three times higher than one born in Hungary. The main causes of death in Romania in 2007 were cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer, digestive and respiratory diseases, accidents, traumas and poisoning, the analysis shows.

The risk of death from cervical cancer is 10 percent higher in Romania than in France or Finland and 3-4 percent higher than in Slovakia or the Czech Republic, although this form of cancer is in fact easy to prevent and to cure through early detection. By the parameter of avoidable deaths, which is an indicator directly correlated with the performance of the healthcare system, Romania ranks first in the EU for both genders. Furthermore, whereas all the other EU countries display a steep downward trend for this indicator, in Romania there is just a minor decline for women and a flat trend for men, reads the article.

In Romania, almost half of the deaths among the male population and more than one third of female deaths can be avoided. "In other words, the shortcomings in the Romanian healthcare system kill more than 60,000 people a year, wiping away the equivalent population of a city the size of Slobozia or Giurgiu," the paper points out.

The article was authored by Vasile Astarastoae, PhD, president of the College of Romanian Physicians; Cristian Vadescu, PhD, director of the Public Health, Management and Improvement School; and Silvia Gabriela Scantee, deputy director of the same institution of education.

AGERPRES