The three-day 24th international healthcare exhibition in Minsk is featuring the most outstanding projects from 7 countries. Apart from the latest equipment, thousands of innovative domestic medicines are on display, including a medication for liver and kidney cancer treatment and a Belarusian medicine for hepatitis C. Over 25% of Belarus-produced medicines are exported to 29 countries. Special attention is paid in Belarus to producing counterparts of expensive foreign medicines and Belarusian healthcare centers do not differ significantly from Europe’s best clinics.
Healthcare professionals from other countries traditionally come to Belarus to learn from the experience of Belarusian transplant surgeons. The first kidney transplantation surgery is believed to have been carried out in Belarus back in 1970 at the 4th Minsk City Hospital. Since then, about 3,000 such operations have been performed in Belarus.
The adoption of amendments to the law on transplantation in 2008 marked a new era in domestic healthcare. It was then that a liver transplantation surgery was performed. 430 surgeries of the kind have been carried out since then.
Over 230 heart transplantation surgeries have been carried in Belarus since 2009. The first lung transplantation surgery took place 2 year ago.
November 2, 2016 saw the first heart-lung transplantation surgery. In addition, a month ago Belarusian heart surgeons used a 3D printed heart model for a complicated operation.
Belarus annually moves up in the WHO infant mortality ranking and currently ranks 2nd in the world, being ahead of Switzerland, Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA.
One of Belarus’ most important achievements is a record decrease in maternal mortality: it has gone down by 88% over 25 years. As a result, Belarus is on the same level with the Czech Republic, Sweden and Italy in the WHO rating, outscoring Belgium and all neighboring countries. The maternal mortality rate in Belarus is lower than in European region countries.
Belarus is home to over 9.5 million people. The figure has increased by over 6,800 since the beginning of the year, including due to natural population increase.
Electronic prescription and medical record systems are operating almost in every outpatient clinic in Belarus. Over the past 20 years, the country’s healthcare system has been modernized. 17 national scientific and practical centers have been set up. Thousands of rubles are invested in the healthcare system every year.
