The post “Health Systems Must Provide Cancer Screening, Detection and Diagnosis at all Levels of Care” appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>Inadequate access to cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment is the primary cause. In 2017 just 30% of low-income countries reported having appropriate cancer treatment services available. That compares to more than 90% of high-income countries. Just 26% of low-income countries meanwhile reported having pathology services generally available in the public sector, leading to late diagnosis and a lower chance of successful treatment.
Global Cancer Incidence 2018 – WHO Report
Member States Region-wide have taken action. As early as 2015 the Regional Committee adopted a resolution on the way forward for cancer prevention and control, emphasizing the need to strengthen national programmes. That commitment was fortified in 2017, when the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution that promoted an integrated approach to providing cancer services, and when in 2018 the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer was launched.
To accelerate Region-wide progress and counter the fact that more than 67% of the Region’s cancer patients die before the age of 70, several core initiatives must be strengthened.
Of pressing need is integrating national cancer control programmes into health systems at every level. While tertiary services are important, they are expensive and generally most effective when a cancer is detected early.
To make that happen, effective cancer screening services must be available at both secondary and primary facilities, while health workers must be trained to identify the signs and symptoms that could lead to a positive diagnosis.
Member States should also continue to implement policies that prioritize cancer prevention across sectors. That could mean pursuing the plain-packaging of tobacco products (tobacco is the single largest cause of cancer, making up around 22% of cancer deaths), better-regulating alcohol consumption or promoting the virtues of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. It could also mean strengthening immunization programmes to ensure everyone receives the hepatitis B vaccine and all females receive the human papillomavirus vaccine.
Importantly, and as the theme of this year’s World Cancer Day – ‘I am and I will’ – emphasizes, each of us can be a changemaker. By avoiding behaviors that are linked to cancer we can reduce our own risk while encouraging our peers to do the same.
Notably, we can also promote high-level engagement and funding of national programmes. As a 2014 World Health Assembly resolution urges, beyond prevention and control, this should include promoting quality palliative services able to give terminal patients the care and dignity they deserve.
WHO is committed to working with Member States to strengthen cancer prevention and control programmes Region-wide. Doing so is commensurate with the Region’s Flagship Priorities on tackling noncommunicable diseases, as well as achieving universal health coverage.
It is also commensurate with the conviction that people in low- and middle-income countries should be at no greater risk of cancer and associated mortality than those anywhere else in the world.
By Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia
Ways to Reduce your Cancer Risk
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]]>The post Nepal Signs ‘Delhi Declaration’ to Ensure Improved Medical Access appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>This includes the provision of medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and medical devices to people within the region and beyond.
To further this cause, Nepal along with other member countries’ representatives signed the ‘Delhi Declaration’ to enhance provision of essential medical products.
“Access to safe, effective and affordable medical products is vital to prevent sufferings and impoverishment resulting from high out-of-pocket expenses on healthcare by families, especially the poor,” said Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region.
Owing to a major chunk of the region’s excessive spending on health care, 65 million people fall below the poverty line in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
Improving access to essential medicines has been an important WHO goal since 2014. However, it still remains a challenge to ensure provision of the right medical products at the right time.
The Delhi Declaration seeks to address this challenge by doing the following:
- Allocation of adequate financial resources by member countries
- Reduction of out-of-pocket payment from families on essential medicines
- Strengthening of national policies, regulation, supply chain management
- Enhancing the capacity of intellectual property and trade for public health
- Improvement of access to medicines and vaccines
71st Regional Committee Session
Member countries pledged to build an effective, transparent and engaging procedure for price negotiation within the region and pooled procurement to facilitate access and affordability of essential products for life-threatening and rare diseases, while signing the declaration.
Besides this, they will also focus on:
- Strengthening regulatory cooperation and collaboration to enhance availability, quality and safety of essential medical products through South-East Asia’s regulatory network
- Improving accessibility and affordability within the region and beyond, since the region is emerging as a major producer of essential products especially generic medicines
- Developing an essential product list, especially essential diagnostics list to provide enhanced patient care, affordable quality tests,
- Increasing the potential of disease diagnostics and national laboratories during outbreaks
- Usage of more appropriate antibiotics
- Innovation and investment in research and development for neglected diseases and affordable medicines
Conclusion:
Nepal has been working hard to change its health care scenario and this evident through its recent success of curbing various diseases including rubella. Hopefully, the country will achieve this new goal that it has set through the Delhi Declaration.
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]]>The post WHO South-East Asia: Nepal Successful in Curbing Rubella appeared first on Nepali Sansar.
]]>Nepal is among the six countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste that are now certified for controlling rubella and congenital rubella syndrome two years ahead of the targeted deadline- 2020.
This encouraging announcement comes as a result of the Regional Verification Commission (RVC) expert’s in-depth analysis of each country’s national verification committee’s data and reports.
The commission acknowledged the member countries’ tremendous progress in bringing about this positive scenario, over the past four years.
Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh Regional Director WHO South-East Asia Region congratulated the countries’ efforts. “These achievements demonstrate the commitment and resolve of countries in the region towards the health of women and children, and for universal health coverage,” says Singh.
In 2014, WHO South-East Asia announced its ‘flagship program’ of eliminating measles and controlling rubella and congenital rubella syndrome by 2020. Following the announcement, all the South-East Asian countries seriously took up the task of developing mechanisms to eliminate these diseases which are the cause of neonatal deaths.
South-East Asia Rubella and Measles Statistics:
- Rubella control is measured when a country is successful in reducing the number of rubella instances by 95% since 2008
- Bhutan and Maldives successfully eliminated Measles in 2017
- Every year, 4.8 million children in South-East Asia fail to receive vaccination for measles
- Each year, 38 million children are born in this region, out of which only 87 percent get their first dose of vaccination. The remaining 4.8 million are vulnerable to measles each year
- The region plans to vaccinate nearly 500 million children against measles and rubella in the next two years
- In 2016, neonatal mortality rate stood at 24.5 deaths per 1,000 live births wherein Nepal alone recorded 50 deaths
We hope that Nepal soon becomes a rubella-free nation and lands another landmark achievement in its list of health sector victories.
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