Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman is participating with the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the 6th Gulf Cancer Awareness Week that will take place in the first week of February.
The celebration of this week comes based on the recommendations of the Executive Authority of the Council of Health Ministers of the GCC countries.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Usually, the incidence rate in developed industrial countries is much higher than in developing countries. In addition, several studies indicate the possibility of having 27.5 million new cases of cancer each year by 2040, an increase of 61.7 percent from 2018, if the current trends continue.
From this standpoint, as a continuation of the efforts made to fight cancer worldwide and as a part of the GCC countries, the Sultanate of Oman will participate in the 6th Gulf Cancer Awareness Week that will take place from 1-7 February 2021. The activities of the week will include health awareness lectures, walkathons and entertainment events in various governorates of the Sultanate. These events are organized in partnership with various stakeholders from public and private sectors. The closing ceremony will take place on February 7, 2021.
The activities of the Gulf Cancer Awareness Week will be launched on Monday, and will go on from the February 1-7, within the framework of the unified Gulf campaign with the slogan 40/40, which was chosen based on the scientific evidence that indicates that 40 per cent of the cancer diseases can be prevented by following healthy lifestyle, adopting correct dietary habits, practicing regular physical activity and maintaining an ideal body weight, while 40 types of cancer can be cured if detected early and managed with the appropriate treatment plan in a timely manner.
The GCC countries have adopted the first week of February every year as Gulf Cancer Awareness week in line with the celebration of the World Cancer Day which takes place on February 4 every year. The Gulf Cancer Awareness week aims to raise health awareness about risk factors leading to cancer; to encourage the community to adopt a healthy lifestyle including diet and physical activity as well as to encourage saving the environment, public health, professional health and the importance of early detection of cancer for better prognosis.
Further, it also aims to activate national cancer control programs and the shared responsibility of the governmental and non-governmental sectors in these programmes. The message of the GCC campaign is to strengthen the relationship between all stakeholders in the society in raising health awareness through the preparation and implementation of quality and effective joint educational programmes and activities that help in cancer prevention and control.
The Oman Cancer Association, in cooperation with all governmental, private and non-governmental organisations, is ready to celebrate this occasion with the aim of raising awareness on cancer prevention with special emphasis on the importance of following a healthy lifestyle for cancer prevention.
