Obesity, science appeal to institutions

Urgent request for “governmental and institutional acts to protect the person with obesity, in general and particularly in this emergency phase due to Covid-19, as a ‘severely fragile patient'”. These are the theme and contents of a letter sent by representatives of scientific societies, patient and citizen associations involved in the field of obesity to the Minister of Health, Italian politicians and decision makers through the Presidents of the Parliamentary Intergroup “Obesity and Diabetes,” Hon. Roberto Pella and Sen.

Daniela Sbrollini.

Signed by the presidents of as many as 14 organizations, it aims to emphasize how “international and national data on Covid-19, including those from reports by the National Institute of Health, indicate greater vulnerability and mortality in patients with obesity and overweight than patients with other diseases. This further reinforces the realization that obesity prevention reduces the risk of severity for known diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory, and kidney diseases, but also for communicable diseases such as Covid-19 infection.”

There are as many as 25 million, in Italy, almost 50 percent of the adult population – stresses the letter – overweight and obese people who could have major repercussions on their health and survival from this health emergency.

Taking their cue from the motion committing the Ministry of Health to implement initiatives in the prevention and treatment of obesity, which was approved on Nov. 13, 2019 in the Chamber of Deputies, with a unanimous vote of all political forces, the signatories of the document urge, in light of the Covid-19 emergency, its “imperative and urgent” implementation, to protect the health and rights of people with obesity.