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CALI, Colombia .- The effective use of health resources is essential to improve the rapid diagnosis of cancer and access to treatments to reduce mortality from this disease coincided Today During the Efe Health Forum "Organized Cities Against Cancer" held at the seventh edition of Roche Press Day, the project began in the Colombian city of Cali (southwest ) 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 cancer the second leading cause in Latin America.
"Cali took on the challenge of achieving the convergence of all the actors who went to work together, as a city to decide what their priorities were 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 "Cities Against Cancer C / Can 2025", a project that aims to help cities in the development of solutions for cancer control.
Maria Cristina Lesmes, Departmental Secretary of Health of the Valle del Cauca Department, whose capital is Cali, He pointed out that, even though it has not been an easy task, up to now it was possible to progress in several stages of the project.
"We have successfully completed the diagnosis, we are building the projects at the stage of seeking funding, we have also started with the education of human resources," he said.
Lesmes stressed that one of the main challenges facing cities in the fight against cancer is precisely access or rapid diagnosis, since according to figures from the World Health Organization ( WHO), between 60 and 70% of cases of cancer in the region are diagnosed at an advanced stage.
For Rolando Camacho, diagnosis is one of the main objectives of the UICC: "we seek early diagnosis, and for this it is necessary that health professionals be educated so that they know how to direct the patient to the first symptoms. "
Camacho recognized Although Cali progressed through this initiative, there are still many obsta "such as stigma, because many people still are not convinced that cancer can be cured if it is treated in time," he said
. that the specialist emphasized the importance of awareness campaigns so that patients and health professionals know how to detect the symptoms of the disease in time .
Carlos E Strada, managing director of Roche in Colombia, agreed on the importance of education for health staff as he stated that "this is the starting point for dealing with any disease . "
In addition, he emphasized the role he plays in private initiative to raise awareness about diseases because "the patient must understand the disease be aware of the symptoms and know when to go to the doctor." [19659003] For its part, Lesmes acknowledged that one of the great challenges of the cities is still the funding of the fight against this disease so "we must find a source of resources, which is the only thing I can do. one of the most complicated jobs ". 19659003] In this sense, Ramiro Guerrero, director of the Center for Studies on Social Protection (Proesa), said that while it is true that resources are needed, the most important is to "spend well, instead of spending He explained that in the region there are fewer resources "and therefore we can not afford to spend badly", although he stressed that this is not limited to the "money". money, but also to human resources, use On the other hand, Lesmes explained that the work of cities to fight diseases such as cancer will be complicated "because it will take many years to convince the population to change your lifestyle ".
He also stated 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 human papillomavirus (HPV), which makes them vulnerable to cancer of the cervix of the uterus. ] Finally, Rolando Camacho said that reducing the number of cancer deaths by 25%, one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for 2025 is not an achievable goal, but has stressed that the work of cities like Cali, could help in the future has reduced the mortality of this disease in regions such as Latin America.
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