People around the world celebrate World Cancer Day on 4 February every year.
This day aims to improve general knowledge of the disease and to advocate for excelling efforts towards finding cures and improving treatments.
Countries, national and nongovernmental organizations, and interested people raise awareness of the disease; its causes, its effects, and treatments.
This year the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) focuses on dispelling damaging myths and misconceptions about cancer.
Under the tagline “Cancer-Did you know?”, World Cancer Day will seek to raise awareness of cancer and to dismiss popular misconceptions about the disease.
This year World Cancer Day comes as patients in the Gaza Strip continue to struggle with the disease; often living in very poor conditions and with the absence of appropriate health care.
The severe nature of the disease requires special treatments involving medical equipment and medications that are often not found in the Gaza Strip.
Being unable to treat cancer effectively, patients are at an unnecessary risk of dying.
Cancer is considered the second highest killer in Gaza according to the Ministry of Health, with 12% of the death toll being from the disease.
According to a study conducted by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights on claiming the right to health for cancer patients in Gaza, the study shows that there is a lack in the number of doctors; nurses; beds; isolation rooms; radiance materials; and an unreliability in the functioning of diagnosis materials.
There is also lacking materials for nuclear scans, sample tinctures, and PET (positron emission topography) scans.
There are delays in diagnoses due to the breakdown of the materials such as CT equipment.
There is also a lack of chemical medication, which is often back logged several months.
Donors do not provide financial support for medications purchased outside of the approved medications for cancer according to local treatment protocols.
Patients often need to be referred for treatment outside the Gaza Strip in order to be able to receive medication that should otherwise not cost more than 100 ILS.
This detour is exhausting for the patients both physically and financially.
There is also a lack of psychological support and Palliative care, which relieves suffering and enables patients to continue their lives naturally.
Due to economic instability, poverty, and unemployment in Gaza, some patients are not able to secure travel expenses.
And even if they are, the Israeli Forces at times arbitrarily prevent cancer patients from travelling to Israel or the West Bank to receive medical treatment; in blatant disregard of its legal obligations under International Law.
On this World Cancer Day, Al Mezan feels the suffering and pain of cancer patients in the Gaza Strip particularly in their inability to access their right to health.
Al Mezan asserts the importance of working together to enable cancer patients to realize their rights.
Al Mezan calls for the: International community to uphold its moral and legal responsibility and to work immediately to ensure that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can access their right to health; International community to immediately intervene to end Israeli collective punishment and to oblige Israel to uphold its legal responsibilities in ensuring access to healthcare and medical treatment for people in the occupied Palestinian territory; End to the Palestinian internal political split and the separation of service areas from political conflicts to ensure better management of the health sector; Provision of appropriate equipment needed for diagnosis and treatment; Increase in awareness of people with cancer, its causes, and it’s treatments; Assurance that patients receive psychological support and Palliative care: Provision of financial support for cancer patients of low socioeconomic backgrounds and their accompaniers when patients are referred abroad to receive medical treatment.
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