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The effective use of resources health is essential to improve the rapid diagnosis of cancer and access to treatments to reduce mortality from this disease, agreed several experts today. # 39; hui.
Efe Forum Health "Cities Against Cancer" held at the seventh edition of Roche Press Day, the project launched in the Colombian city of Cali (southwest) was discussed for design, planning and implementation Rolando Camacho, external consultant of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), said that Cali has managed to be a model for Latin American countries in the fight against this disease, the second leading cause of death in Latin America.
"Cali took up the challenge of achieving the convergence of all the actors who came to work together as a city to cidir what were his priorities in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer," said Camacho.
Cali, with Asunción (Paraguay) and Porto Alegre (Brazil) are the cities that are part of the initiative "Cities Against Cancer". Can 2025 ", a project to help cities develop cancer control solutions
María Cristina Lesmes, departmental secretary of Salud from Valle del Cauca, whose capital is Cali, said that although it has not been an easy job, so far it has been possible to move forward in several stages of the project.
"We have finished with successful diagnostic phase, we build the projects in the research phase. We also started with human resource education, "he said.
Lesmes pointed out that one of the main challenges facing cities in the fight against cancer is precisely the access to human resources. a timely diagnosis, since according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), between 60 and 70% of cancer cases in the region are diagnosed at an advanced stage.
For Rolando Camacho, the timely diagnosis is one of UICC's main objectives: "We seek that there is an early diagnosis, and for this it is necessary that the professionals of the health have an education so that they know how to direct the patient to help "
Camacho acknowledged that although Cali has progressed through the initiative, there are still many obstacles "such as stigma because many people still are not convinced that if the cancer is treated on time," that is why the specialist stressed the importance of awareness campaigns so that patients and patients Professionals of the [19459003
Carlos Estrada, general manager of Roche in Colombia, agreed on the importance of educating health personnel as he said "c & # 39; is the starting point for treating any disease.
In addition, he emphasized the role of private initiative in raising awareness of diseases because "the patient must understand the disease, be aware of the symptoms and know when to go to the doctor."
Lesmes acknowledged that one of the great challenges of cities is still funding the fight against this disease, "so it is necessary to find a source of resources, which is one of the jobs the more complicated ".
In this sense, Ramiro Guerrero, director of the Center for Studies in Social Welfare (Proesa), said that even though it is true that resources are needed, the most important is to "spend well , instead of spending more. "
He explained that in the region there are fewer resources" and therefore we can not afford to spend badly ", although he pointed out that this is not limited to only one person. money, but also to human resources.On the other hand, Lesmes explained that the work of cities to fight against diseases such as cancer will be complicated "because it will take many years to convince people to change the style of "
He also said that one of the main problems they face is the influence of anti-vaccine groups, which prevent, for example, girls from being vaccinated against the virus. Human papilloma (HPV), which makes them vulnerable to cancer of the cervix.] Finally, Rolando Camacho said that reducing the number of cancer deaths by 25%, one of the goals United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development for 2025 is not an objective or feasible, but stressed that the work of cities such as Cali, could help in the future to reduce the mortality of this disease in regions such as Latin America.
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