From the urgent need to close the cancer treatment gap in low- and middle-income countries, to better prevention against disease outbreaks and effective health care emergency response, collaboration between the IAEA and the World Health Organization (WHO) is essential, the IAEA said at the WHO’s 152nd Executive Board meeting.
High-level delegates from ministries of health across the globe were informed of the IAEA’s Rays of Hope initiative, launched last year by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, which has galvanized stakeholders including international organizations and the private sector to improve human health and mobilize support in making radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy accessible to countries where it is needed most, particularly in Africa.
“Together, and with Rays of Hope adding new impetus, the IAEA and WHO remain committed to upscaling our long-standing close collaboration to help countries improve cancer control planning, ensure the safe delivery of cancer treatment and to provide joint guidance on important topics relating to cancer, among others,” said Meena Singelee, Head of the IAEA Liaison Office in Geneva, who delivered the IAEA’s statement at the meeting.
“The IAEA continues to work in close collaboration with the WHO and our common Member States around the world on human health and non-communicable diseases,” she said. The IAEA statement highlighted the importance of working together to combat cancer, as well as to guard against threats of zoonotic diseases and other emerging and re-emerging diseases.
The IAEA also continues its work with key partners such as WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): through the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) the IAEA has conducted cancer control assessments, known as imPACT Reviews, in more than 110 countries since 2004 and is currently working with more than 15 countries to develop their national cancer control plans.
