2 December 2024, Cairo, Egypt – The World Well being Group (WHO) has launched a brand new report that highlights how, if left unaddressed, breast and cervical cancers within the Jap Mediterranean Area might consequence within the lack of hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of {dollars} over the following 2 a long time.
Girls’s cancers signify a serious public well being problem within the Area, inflicting immense struggling and substantial social and financial prices. In 2020, these cancers claimed 60 000 lives and price US$ 15 billion, equal to 0.44% of the Area’s GDP. Most cancers deaths are projected to soar to 2 million over the following 20 years, with related financial prices rising to US$ 379 billion by 2040.
In response to calls from Member States for evidence-based steering, WHO’s Regional Workplace for the Jap Mediterranean carried out a comprehensive situation analysis and investment case on the impression of ladies’s cancers on well being techniques and economies. The findings underscore the pressing want for early intervention to mitigate the rising disaster. Key takeaways embrace:
In 2020, breast and cervical cancers resulted in 60 000 deaths within the Area.
The financial burden of those cancers is projected to succeed in US$ 379 billion by 2040, with as much as 99% of the prices stemming from misplaced productiveness resulting from untimely deaths.
Price-effective interventions, reminiscent of HPV vaccination and early breast most cancers analysis and remedy, have the potential to forestall 73 000 deaths and ship important returns on funding.
The report underlines how investing in ladies’s well being is an financial alternative fairly than a monetary burden. Each US$ 1 spent on HPV vaccination might yield a return of as much as US$ 6.2, whereas funding in early analysis and complete remedy of breast most cancers might present a return of between US$ 6.4 to US$ 7.8 on every US$ 1 invested.
To higher attain underserved populations, the report highlights the necessity to overcome cultural and financial limitations to entry to well being care and underlines the function of neighborhood well being employees, culturally tailor-made well being communication and insurance coverage reforms.
As WHO requires an built-in strategy to most cancers prevention and remedy, situating efforts inside broader well being methods to strengthen main well being care techniques, the report gives governments within the Area with an important software to tell evidence-based selections that not solely save lives however contribute to long-term financial resilience.
By scaling up WHO-recommended interventions, governments will profit people and societies, defending the well being of ladies and creating substantial financial returns.
Learn the total report right here
https://applications.emro.who.int/docs/9789292743369-eng.pdf?ua=1
