People around the world mark World Cancer Day annually on 4 February.
The day aims to improve awareness and understanding of the disease and to increase advocacy for excelling efforts towards finding cures and improving treatments.
Countries, national and nongovernmental organizations, and individual advocates raise awareness of the disease; its causes, effects, and treatments.
This year the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) focuses on dispelling damaging myths and misconceptions about cancer.
Under the tagline “Debunk the Myths”, World Cancer Day will seek to raise awareness of cancer and to dismiss popular misconceptions about the disease.
This theme is in line with Target Five of the World Cancer Declaration: reduce stigma and dispel myths about cancer.
This year, World Cancer Day is marked around the world as patients in the Gaza Strip continue to struggle in the absence of appropriate health care.
Necessary medications and treatments are often not found in Gaza due to the stifling Israeli closure.
There is currently only one MRI scanner for diagnoses, located at the Gaza European Hospital; however, the machine hasn’t worked for two months as Israeli authorities have denied transportation of a needed device for the machine.
The hospitals in Gaza also lack materials for sample tinctures and nuclear and PET (positron emission topography) scans.
Chemical medication is also desperately needed as supplies are often back logged several months.
There is also a significant lack of psychological support and Palliative care, which relieves suffering and enables patients to continue their lives naturally.
Patients often need to be referred for treatment outside the Gaza Strip in order to be able to receive medication; however, the Israeli restrictions on movement and access prevent many patients from travelling to Israel or the West Bank to receive medical treatment.
Being unable to diagnose or treat cancer effectively, patients are at an unnecessary risk of dying.
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: 1.
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; 2.
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 occupied Palestine; and 3.
End to the Palestinian internal political split and the separation of service areas from political conflicts to ensure better management of the health sector.