Dubai: «The Gulf»
On Friday, the United States pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai hosted a panel discussion as part of the global campaign directed to raise awareness of the message of World Cancer Day, “Closing the Care Gap”, which was launched at the initiative of the American pharmaceutical company “MSD”, the Dubai Health Authority, and the Dubai Health Association. Emirates Oncology, and the World Cancer Day Committee, to spread awareness and strive to prevent this disease.
The initiative aims to spread awareness regarding it, as half of the world’s population lacks a full range of appropriate medical care services, including early examination, medical diagnosis, medicines and analgesics. The world is uniting to “close the care gap,” so that all individuals living in remote areas can easily access appropriate medical care and cancer prevention.
The panel discussion was moderated by Ricardo Karam, CEO of “Takreem” Lebanon, and a number of experts participated in it. Dr. Humaid Al Shamsi, President of the Emirates Oncology Society, stressed that cancer has become a disease that can be controlled, treated and cured more than it was twenty years ago, saying that “there is no need to be afraid to talk regarding cancer.”
He talked regarding the latest recommendations regarding the most common types of cancer, most notably breast cancer in women and cervical cancer and prostate cancer in men, stressing that they need to increase the interest of many countries in conducting early examinations and the guidelines for these examinations, and how to convince people to go for the examination. He said that all this needs to raise awareness among people regarding the disease and ways to prevent it, and to make sure that they are not afraid of getting cancer.
Prof. Solange Peters, President of the European Society of Oncology, Switzerland, and Professor Robert Wolff, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA, participated in the discussion. Ashraf Malak, Vice President and CEO of MSD-GCC, UAE. and Dr. Rana Hajja, Director in charge of Program Management, WHO, Egypt.
