Minister Memişoğlu: The average age of society starting to smoke in Türkiye is 17.

According to the statement made by the Ministry of Health, Minister Kemal Memişoğlu addressed the participants at the Turkish Parliamentary Union Programme.

Stating that they started the "Healthy Türkiye Century" program with the "Protecting, Developing and Producing Health" model, Memişoğlu gave information about Türkiye's priority health problems and the studies carried out in these areas.

Memişoğlu emphasized that Türkiye has five basic health problems and stated that these are obesity, tobacco and bad habits, drugs, behavioral addictions and low fertility rate.

Stating that tobacco use is an important public health problem, Memişoğlu said, "According to the latest TÜİK research, the population of children and young people between the ages of 13 and 17 in Türkiye is 7.5 million. 2.5 million of this population of 7.5 million smoke. In other words, 30 percent of the population between the ages of 13 and 17 smokes. The average age of society starting to smoke in Türkiye is 17, so we are faced with a dramatic problem." made his assessment.

Memişoğlu stated that, thanks to the work of family physicians, 8 thousand people were diagnosed with cancer before clinical symptoms occurred in the last year, and emphasized the importance of early diagnosis.

Stating that appointments can be made from hospitals through family physicians, Memişoğlu noted that information about the patients' symptoms and history can be transmitted to the relevant physicians via the electronic system.

Pointing out that the health infrastructure in Türkiye has been significantly strengthened, Memişoğlu said that the number of hospitals increased from 1156 to 1526, the number of beds increased from 164 thousand to 274 thousand, the number of qualified beds increased from 18 thousand to 184 thousand, the number of intensive care beds from 2 thousand to 48 thousand, and the number of healthcare workers reached 1.5 million from 378 thousand.

Referring to the studies aimed at supporting normal birth, Memişoğlu stated that normal birth is physiological and cesarean section is a form of surgery.

Source: TRT Haber Açık RSS (Gündem) (Open Press / Translated Full Text)