By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Reporter
MEASURES TO close the survival gap for childhood cancer patients have intensified as the World Health Organisation (WHO) begins distributing lifesaving medicines at no cost to low- and middle-income countries.
While nearly 90 per cent of children diagnosed with cancer in high-income nations survive, the rate plunges below 30 per cent in poorer regions.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus highlighted the disparity during a global health media conference on Wednesday.
He stressed that an estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer annually, yet access to treatment remains severely unequal.
In response, WHO and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital launched a Global Initiative on Childhood Cancer in 2018, aiming to improve treatment accessibility.
He said this week, Mongolia and Uzbekistan became the first recipients of free childhood cancer medicines under the programme.
Over the coming months, shipments will extend to Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal, and Zambia. WHO expects these treatments to reach approximately 5,000 children across 30 hospitals in the six countries by year-end.
Plans are also underway to expand the initiative to six more nations, with a target of reaching 120,000 children in 50 countries within the next five to seven years, he further announced.
Ghebreyesus praised the programme’s growth, acknowledging St. Jude’s partnership in driving its success.
Meanwhile, WHO’s Executive Board, its second-most influential decision-making body after the World Health Assembly, has recommended an increase in assessed contributions from member states.
The proposal aims to secure WHO’s financial stability by gradually raising membership fees from 16 per cent to 50 per cent of the organisation’s base budget by 2027.
The budget proposal for 2026-2027, which covers global health priorities such as polio eradication, meningitis, cervical cancer, air pollution, and universal health coverage, is expected to be approved by the World Health Assembly.
In Uganda, WHO is actively assisting the government in containing a fresh Ebola outbreak. Nine confirmed cases, including one fatality, have been reported so far, with over 260 contacts being monitored.
Also, WHO has deployed experts to support surveillance, laboratory testing, logistics, and infection control.
Trained emergency medical teams are also providing treatment, while critical supplies have been dispatched from logistics hubs in Nairobi and Dubai.
The agency said there are are currently no authorised vaccines or treatments for the specific Ebola strain involved in the outbreak.
However, thanks to prior preparedness measures and global research efforts, a vaccine trial commenced just four days after the outbreak was declared. A therapeutics trial is also set to begin once national authorities grant approval, the WHO informs.
To bolster the response, WHO says it has allocated an additional $2 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies, bringing its total contribution to $3 million.
