World Health Organisation’s Euro Region Small Countries Initiative (SCI) adopted on Friday the Cyprus Statement which lays out the 12 SCI members’ joint commitment to address the health impacts of climate change and improving cancer care, including childhood cancer.
At the same time, the 10th High Level SCI Meeting concluded on Friday in Limassol, unanimously voted for North Macedonia to become the 12th country in the Small Countries Initiative.
Minister of Health Michael Damianos and WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge presented the results of the meeting at a press conference.
As Cypriot Health Minister noted, the meeting provided the opportunity to the SCI Health Ministers and Deputy Ministers to share progress in implementing the roadmap towards better health in small countries in the WHO European Region for 2022-2025, and to address the common growing challenges in the region and beyond, that call for joined efforts and increased cooperation.
He also said that they discussed cancer as a lead
ing cause of premature death, and we agreed on the reduction in premature mortality through improving cancer care through early detection routes, and also childhood cancer, the main cause of death among children.
According to Michael Damianos, commitments included advocating for high-quality multidisciplinary cancer care for children and enhancing early detection capabilities.
On the topic of climate change and health, the Cypriot Minister underlined that SCI acknowledges the impact of climate change on health, with Ministers sharing experiences on how to tackle the impact to health.
He added that human resources for health was also an important topic on the agendas of previous meetings and member states committed to having standalone or integrated human resources on health strategies by 2025, as well as fair access to medicine for small countries, where discussion was directed towards addressing issues such as availability, affordability, and the negotiating power, particularly concerning medicine for rar
e diseases.
The Cypriot Health Minister stressed that participants agreed that their work does not end with the closing of this 10th meeting and that, as they return to their respective countries, they will carry forward the spirit of collaboration and determination by transforming their commitments into concrete actions.
On his part, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge congratulated North Macedonia for becoming the 12th SCI member and also all the 12 countries for adopting the Cyprus Statement ‘which lays out their joint commitment to addressing the health impacts of climate change and improving cancer care, including childhood cancer’.
‘Small countries share similar characteristics in terms of their political landscapes, economic situations, and resources’ WHO Regional Director for Europe underlined, reminding that this year, the SCI has been focusing on two critical topics: cancer and climate change.
As he said, while cardiovascular diseases are on the decline, cancer incidence in small countri
es is on the rise, adding that in small countries the most common cancer deaths in men are due to lung cancer and for women it is breast cancer.
According to Hans Kluge, small countries face unique challenges when it comes to cancer screening, exacerbated due to their small size, limited health personnel and concentration of health services in capital cities.
At the same time he noted that three small countries don’t have a cervical cancer screening programme for women, when the evidence is crystal clear that it saves lives, whereas more than half of the small countries still face challenges to ensure rapid diagnosis of symptomatic cancer patients and need to urgently develop fast-track pathways.
He also stressed that when children in small countries and their families need to access cancer care, they may need to cross national borders frequently for treatment and that access to childhood cancer medicines is also an issue in most of the small countries. ‘And often, medicines can be hugely expensive and out
of reach for most people’ he added.
WHO Regional Director for Europe stated that climate change is already affecting small countries in Europe, and countries like Cyprus have been sounding the alarm for decades, indicating that small countries need to prepare their health systems now for unpredictable weather patterns and their knock-on effects.
‘Countries like Cyprus, Malta, and Montenegro may face water scarcity, reduced freshwater supplies, and increased challenges for water resources, affecting agriculture and industry,’ he said, also noting that changes in temperature, and extreme weather events can affect tourist behavior, infrastructure, and natural attractions, impacting local economies and livelihoods, in places like Malta, Cyprus and Iceland with large tourism industries.
WHO Regional Director for Europe also referred to progress achieved by Cyprus in recent years in health sector.
‘I congratulate Cyprus on its many health reforms in recent years,’ he said, indicating that these include equitabl
e access to quality healthcare services, investing in health infrastructure and health care workforce, establishing a Patient Ombudsman office for patient safety, and supporting the development of a national mental health strategy with WHO’s technical assistance with the new WHO country office catalysing effective collaboration.
At the same time Hans Kluge stressed that there are health challenges knocking on Cyprus’s door too, noting that tobacco use in Cyprus remains stubbornly high as 23% of adults in Cyprus smoke and almost a fifth of all deaths are attributed to tobacco consumption, a preventable cause. Moreover, 62% of children in Cyprus aged 6-9 are overweight, the highest rate among EU countries and as 6% of cancers are attributable to obesity, in line with the rest of the small countries but with childhood obese cohorts coming of age, the cancer incidence will most likely only increase.
Hans Kluge underlined that ‘solving these and other health challenges is not impossible but we must plan and take
action today’.
‘If we work together – across sectors – finding common ground – developing partnerships – learning from each other – we can build healthier nations and reduce the burden on our health systems,’ he noted.
The World Health Organization Euro Region Small Countries Initiative is a network of 12 European countries with 2 million residence or less, namely Andorra, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovenia and North Macedonia. SCI was established in 2014 and has proved to be a driver for innovative solutions for small countries.
The objectives of the Initiative are to place health and well-being high on the key political agendas of small countries, to advocate with respect to the needs of small countries at regional and international level, to promote investment for health and well-being, to build a solutions platform for better and resilient health systems, and to measure progress.
Source: Cyprus News Agency