WHO to boost fight against cancer in poor countries
The UN health agency said today that it will do more to step up prevention and treatment of cancer in developing countries to help them fight a recent rise in deaths from the disease.
Poorer countries face more cases of cancer as their populations grow older, the World Health Organisation said. The number of worldwide annual cancer deaths has risen to nearly seven million compared to about five million ten years ago.
“In a way it is a global cancer epidemic and WHO has taken a stand to accept this as a challenge,” said Yasmin Bhurgri, who chaired the first meeting of a new cancer committee, which advises WHO chief Lee Jong-wook.
More than three-quarters of annual cancer deaths worldwide are in developing countries, where the number of cases is increasing sharply, partly because people are living longer as these states have more success fighting infectious diseases like Aids and tuberculosis.
“And these are the unfortunate countries who are unable to deal with this either in a technical manner, nor do they have the resources in any respect, be it financial, or any logistic arrangement for it,” Bhurgri said.
The WHO expects annual deaths from cancer to increase to 20 million by 2020, as populations grow older and causes of cancer, such as smoking and environmental pollution, spread.
At its initial meeting in Geneva, the committee concluded that the WHO should make the prevention of cancer and reducing avoidable risk factors, such as smoking, one of its top priorities, Bhurgri said.
For example, every second case of cancer in male Pakistanis can be directly linked to smoking, she said.
Robert Beaglehole, the WHO’s chronic diseases chief, admitted that cancer had “so far not been high enough on the priority list of the WHO.”
“We need to play a leading role,” he said, adding that WHO’s 148 member countries would certainly end up spending more money on this issue.
“This is not just one day, or a single meeting,” Bhurghi said. “This is the commitment of the advisory committee to continue its work until we have control over cancer.”
