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Italian nonna becomes the world’s second oldest person

As of this weekend, 115-year-old Giuseppina Projetto of Italy is the second oldest person alive in the world today.

Published: 23 April 2018 12:00 CEST
Italian nonna becomes the world's second oldest person
The second oldest person alive, Giuseppina Projetto. Photo: Richard Monkey/Wikimedia Commons

Projetto, born to Sicilian parents in Sardinia in 1902, is already the oldest living European after the death of a 116-year-old Spaniard five months ago. 

After Japanese “supercentarian” Nabi Tajima passed away on Saturday at the age of 117, Projetto – who turns 116 on May 30th – now finds herself in global second place. The top spot goes to another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who is older than Projetto by barely a month.

Another Italian, Maria Giuseppa Robucci, is in fourth place on the official ranking compiled by the international Gerontology Research Group. Nonna Peppa, as she's affectionately known, was born in March 1903 in Apulia, where she still resides today.

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Nonna Pina – that's Projetto's nickname – left her hometown more than 60 years ago for Montelupo Fiorentino in Tuscany, where she lives with her descendants in the family home. 

“Big hugs to Nonna Pina from all of Montelupo,” local mayor Paolo Masetti wrote on Facebook congratulating her on her new record. 

Dubbed “the grandmother of Italy”, Projetto has been the world's oldest Italian since 117-year-old Emma Morano died last April, followed by 115-year-old Canadian-Italian nun Marie-Josephine Clarice Gaudette, who passed away in July.

She is one of tens of thousands of Italians over 100 and still going. Many scientists have sought to identify the key to Italy's extraordinary longevity, with suggestions ranging from a Mediterranean diet to hormones to sex. 

Projetto's family, meanwhile, put her long life down to well-established habits – such as eating chocolate daily – and a certain spirit.

“She has remained fixed in time,” one of her daughters-in-law told a local paper last year. “With resolution, optimism, dignity – and a great love for life.” 

READ ALSO: Cheese, wine and family: the Italian way to live beyond 100
Photo: Sergio Pani/Flickr

 

 

HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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