WHO starts global initiative to treat children with cancer

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has on Wednesday announced a new effort the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer initiative to treat children with cancer globally.

The agency states that the initiative is with the aim of reaching at least a 60per cent survival rate for children with cancer by 2030, thereby saving an additional one million lives.

“This new target represents a doubling of the global cure rate for children with cancer,” It says.

The Initiative is announced on the heels of the Third Global High-Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases, which convened dozens of heads of state and ministers from all countries to prompt more urgent action on non-communicable diseases – among them cancer, diabetes, heart and lung diseases – which kill 41 million people each year.

According to the agency, the aims of the initiative are two-fold, to increase prioritization of childhood cancer through awareness raising at global and national levels and to expand the capacity of countries to deliver best practice in childhood cancer care.

“St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States, the first WHO Collaborating Centre on childhood cancer, has committed US$ 15,000,000 to supporting implementation of the initiative,” says agency.

Cancer is a leading cause of death for children, with 300,000 new cases diagnosed each year among children aged 0-19 years.

Children with cancer in low- and middle-income countries are four times more likely to die of the disease than children in high-income countries. This is because their illnesses are not diagnosed, they are often forced to abandon treatment due to high costs, and the health professionals entrusted with their care lack specialized training.

Concretely, WHO will support governments to assess current capacities in cancer diagnosis and treatment including the availability of medicines and technologies; set and cost priority cancer diagnosis and treatment programmes; and integrates childhood cancer into national strategies, health benefits packages and social insurance schemes.