About 400 children in Moldova who suffer from diabetes will get free glucometers and test strips for monitoring the blood sugar level and lancets for five daily analyses during a year. The medical devices were bought with the funds of the Ministry of Health. The Mother and Child Institute is responsible for distributing these, the Ministry of Health says in a press release.

“As a result of repeated approaches made by endocrinologists and patients, for the first time we managed to obtain this consignment of glucometers, test strips and lancets for supplying all the diabetic children. The average price of a test in drugstores is 3-6 lei. We managed to negotiate a very low price, of 1.5 lei per test,” said Minister of Health Ruxanda Glavan.

Contacted by IPN, director of the Mother and Child Institute Sergiu Glatun said the parents will get the set with consumables for three months at the Children’s Endocrinology Section of the institution, which is the only one in the country. When the period of three months expires, they will receive another set of consumables for three months and so on throughout the year.

The consignment includes 730,000 test strips, 730,000 lancets and 400 glucometers to the value of about 1.2 million lei. The sets will start to be distributed on January 9, 2017.

The Ministry of Health said all the children who suffer from diabetes are provided free with insulin analogs, purchased with the funds of the National Health Insurance Company, at the place of residence. Until now the patents bought glucometers themselves and sustained costs of 600-800 lei a month.