Final push needed to address leprosy in Western Pacific
MANILA, 13 February 2012 – WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office today urged its Member States to make a final push to address leprosy in the Region.
In 1991, WHO launched a global campaign to eliminate leprosy as a public health threat and set a leprosy elimination target of less than one case per 10 000 of population. In that same year, the Western Pacific Region met the elimination target. Over the next two decades, new leprosy cases in the Region declined a remarkable nearly 90%.
Still, three Western Pacific countries – the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands – fail to meet the target. And there are still more than 5000 new cases of leprosy reported in the Region each year. Most of these new cases – about 2000 each year – occur in the Philippines, where leprosy is supposed to have been "eliminated" as WHO defines elimination of the disease.
"Leprosy is curable," says Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. "We have the drugs, we have the knowledge. We can stop the disease from being transmitted from person to person. What we need is the political commitment to finish the job of true leprosy elimination in the Western Pacific."
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Be aware; beat cancer
MANILA, 3 February 2012 – On the eve of World Cancer Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged governments to strengthen national control programmes, including by raising awareness, amid an alarming rise of cancer cases.
WHO warned that there could be 21.4 million cancer cases worldwide by 2030 – up from 12.7 million in 2008 – with nearly two-thirds of them occurring in low- and medium-income countries. The poor often bear the heaviest burden of cancer as they have more exposure to risk factors and less access to preventive and therapeutic services.
"Well organized national cancer control programmes can help to reduce the burden and suffering of cancer," says Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO's Regional Director for the Western Pacific.
The theme for this year's World Cancer Day (4 February), as designated by the Union for International Cancer Control, is: "Together it is possible".
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Did you know ...
Keeping diabetes at bay
 More than 346 million people worldwide have diabetes, and more than 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use can prevent or delay the onset of the most common type of diabetes.
Fact file
| | | Pneumonia: a child killer
 Pneumonia kills 1.4 million children under the age of five every year – more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. This disease can be treated with antibiotics, but only about 30% of children with pneumonia receive the antibiotics they need.
Pneumonia can be prevented by immunization, adequate nutrition and by addressing environmental factors.
Fact file
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WHO urges attention to UN flash appeal for Philippines, sends emergency supplies
MANILA, 22 December 2011 – The World Health Organization (WHO) urges the international community to respond affirmatively to the United Nations' flash appeal for USD 28.6 million of emergency relief for the flood-ravaged southern Philippines.
The tropical storm that struck the area on 16-18 December 2011 left devastation in its wake, mostly in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities on northern Mindanao island. More than 641 000 people have been affected by the ensuing floods, of whom more than 1000 have died, approximately 44 000 are living in evacuation centres and approximately 266 000 are living with relatives or in makeshift shelters.
"The United Nations team and the Government of the Philippines have worked hard to prepare an authoritative assessment of priority needs," says Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO's Regional Director for the Western Pacific. "We appeal to the Member States and our international partners to help the people of the southern Philippines in their hour of suffering and deprivation."
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