WHO Introduces free cancer medicine platform for children in poor countries

Earlier today, the World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new platform providing cost-free cancer medicines for thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries, with aims of improving lagging survival rates.

The United Nations health agency stated that the first medicines were being delivered to Mongolia and Uzbekistan, with further shipments planned for Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal and Zambia, as part of the project’s pilot phase.

The treatments are expected to reach about 5,000 children with cancer this year across at least 30 hospitals in those six nations.

In a statement, the agency announced that countries in the pilot phase will receive an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured childhood cancer medicines at no cost.

WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed that children with cancer have lacked access to life-saving medicines for too long.

Six other countries have been invited to join the platform, which aims to reach 50 countries in the next five to seven years, providing medicines for approximately 120,000 children.