The World Health Organization Celebrates World Cancer Day

The World Health Organization has declared today, February 4th as World Cancer Day. It is estimated that over 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 worldwide, many never being formally diagnosed.

Each year the World Health Organization sponsors the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and their campaign to increase awareness of cancer and encourage prevention worldwide. The UICC is a global consortium of over 280 cancer organizations in over 90 countries.

This year’s campaign focuses on younger children and preventing obesity, which is shown to increase the risk for cancer later in life. The campaign, “Today’s children, tomorrow’s world” has put out a public service announcement “I love my healthy active childhood” which promotes an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits for children.

Worldwide cancer cases are increasing, especially in countries such as China and India where surprisingly, it is not considered to be a high level health concern. India’s cases of malignant mesothelioma have increased in recent years due to the large amount of asbestos imported from Canada. India does not have asbestos-usage regulations and the diagnosis of mesothelioma can take up to 50 years.

The International Union against Cancer is allowing people to sign their “World Cancer Declaration” and devote themselves to worldwide cancer control. More than 500 organizations and 4,000 individuals have already signed this declaration. To learn more about World Cancer Day, please visit uicc.org.