site.btaMedical Team from Stara Zagora's Trakia University Offers Health Screenings in Albania

Dozens of people swarmed the healthcare centre in Kukes on Saturday to get a free multi-disciplinary checkup by a visiting team from the Medical College of Trakia University in Stara Zagora, Southern Bulgaria. The checkups continued on Sunday.

The 11-member Bulgarian team, including four students, is led by the Director of the Medical College, Assoc. Prof. Pavlina Teneva. They are working in Kukes together with Albanian doctors.

The multi-disciplinary screenings target primarily the Bulgarian minority in Albania, with a focus on its members in the Kukes area. They were organized with the support of the Bulgarian Embassy in Tirana and Kukes Town Hall.

Dr Mimoza Selmani, a physician from the town hospital, is working in the first Bulgarian mobile eye specialist's office, situated next to the healthcare centre. Inside the main building, medical laboratory workers are performing tests to determine the subjects' levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and uric acid. Rehabilitators are measuring bone mineral density and examining whether local young people have spine curvatures.

The joint work of the Bulgarian team and their Albanian hosts is facilitated by interpreters employed through the Bulgarian Embassy.

Trakia University Medical College Deputy Director Kaloyan Varlyakov told BTA that the multi-disciplinary screening campaign is part of the College strategy for preventive medicine for the period 2020-2050. The idea is to help people stay in good health by means of food, lifestyle and medicine, Varlyakov explained.

The initiative in Kukes was opened officially on Saturday by Mayor Albert Halilaj, Deputy Mayor Agron Nuredinaj and Bulgarian Ambassador to Albania Ivailo Kirov.

Kirov said that the Embassy has a lasting interest in Kukes and has started working with the municipal government. Earlier Bulgarian initiatives in the area included the renovation of a kindergarten and the replacement of school buildings' windows. The Embassy is considering future projects with Mayor Halilaj.

Commenting on the results of the latest census in Albania, the first population count in the country since it recognized the Bulgarian minority in 2017, Ambassador Kirov thanked the Albanian authorities for the conditions they have created for people to express their views freely.

He said: "The members of the Bulgarian community in Albania are Albanian citizens who are building the Albanian state on a par with all other Albanian citizens. Bulgaria has no claims whatsoever." The diplomat added that Albania is Bulgaria's best friend in the Balkans, and perhaps in Europe.

This is not the first visit of representatives of Stara Zagora's Trakia University to the Adriatic country. One more visit is planned in the future, Kirov said.