Governor of Riyadh, His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz will inaugurate tomorrow (Wednesday), at his emirate office the Gulf Cancer Awareness Campaign, under the theme "40x40".
This was stated by Deputy Director-General of the Council of Health Ministers of GCC countries, Dr. Hajid bin Muhammad Hajid, who expressed his happiness and extended his thanks and appreciation to the Governor of Riyadh for inaugurating the campaign, adding that the campaign comes to activate the GCC executive plan to fight cancer (2016-2025), aiming at primary and secondary prevention of cancer, in addition to activating the role of community partnership through positive and effective role of participation of many NGOs and different government sectors in the GCC countries towards raising the health standard in Gulf community.
He said the fight against cancer is one of the main health issues facing the whole world, and it is among the leading causes of mortality, and new cases is expected to increase to 22 million by 2030 worldwide in accordance to the cancer report 2014 issued by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the statistics of the Gulf International Cancer Center the rates of cancer is increasing since the establishment of the Gulf Cancer Registry, during the period from 1998-2016, he said, adding that the risk lies in the fact that more than 5% of cases are detected in advanced stage that is difficult to treat, increasing related economic, psychological and health burden. From this comes the importance of the Gulf Cancer Awareness Campaign, in its second year, as scientific references indicate that 40% of cancer diseases can be prevented by following healthy life style, and another 40% can be cured, Allah willing, if detected early, he said.
The campaign aims at the following:
• Raising health awareness about risk factors of cancer.
• Encouraging healthy diet and physical activity among all segments of society.
• Raising health awareness about cancer detection means and their importance in improving chances of recovery.
Concluding his statement, he expressed his thanks for the efforts exerted by the officials of the Gulf International Cancer Center and the Gulf Federation for Cancer Control for launching the campaign, pointing out that such good efforts will contribute to achieve aspirations of the GCC leaders of raising health awareness about the importance of early detection in the GCC countries.
For his part Executive Director of the Gulf Federation for Cancer Control, Dr. Ali bin Saied Al-Zahrani said that the campaign came in continuation of the success achieved by the first campaign last February, within the efforts of the center to activate the Gulf strategy to fight cancer, through national programs for fight against cancer as a joint social responsibility between public and private sectors. This year campaign is characterized by a wider range and intensive social programs.
Al-Zahrani indicated that the organizing committee has completed all preparatory works to launch the campaign on February 1st, 2017, simultaneously in all main cities of the GCC countries. He extended his thanks to the GCC ministers of health for their support and adoption of the joint Gulf activity.