From November 11 to 14, 2012, the world’s most prominent political leaders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami’s Coconut Grove for the II Forum for Continuity organized by The Americas Business Council ( abc*). This forum provided a platform for the most innovative activists in Latin America to share the work of their organizations with others who are motivated to bring about positive change in the same field; and the Movicáncer Nicaragua Foundation was invited to present its initiative against Cervical Cancer (CCU) and Breast Cancer, cause and effect of poverty in Nicaraguan women, said Dr. Juan Almendárez Peralta, general director and professor of Public Health from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UNAN-León.
Among the speakers for the abc* Foundation’s Forum for Continuity 2012 was Kofi Annan, former Secretary of the United Nations, among other prominent personalities from the political, business, and academic worlds of the Americas.
For Movicáncer-Nicaragua, it was important to make visible in this forum the value of implementing new and innovative strategies against Cervical Cancer. “Like never before, in Nicaragua we have had the opportunity to eradicate this type of cancer, like now, because we have the knowledge and technology to do it,” said Lic. Benito Martínez Granera, responsible for the education and outreach area for cancer prevention. cancer of that organization.
Mr. Martínez Granera, pointed out the importance of taking short-term measures against cancer and other chronic diseases, assuring that for every 10.0% increase in cases of patients due to these causes, it is estimated that the annual economic growth of a country – like Nicaragua- is reduced by 0.5%. For this reason, the World Economic Forum has classified cancer and other chronic diseases as one of the greatest global threats to economic development.
These diseases are undermining efforts to reduce poverty and increasing inequalities, becoming a critical obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”, pointed out a recently published study by the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic (COMISCA) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), he pointed out.
Commitment to quality and women’s health
Movicáncer-Nicaragua has been working with MINSA since 2007 in the adoption of new information technologies through Sivipcan, a case registration and monitoring system created in Nicaragua and endorsed by the American Cancer Society since 2008; as well as in the training of human resources specialized in cancer control with the purpose of responding to the needs of reducing inequality in access to health and reducing poverty, especially in the most neglected health regions of Nicaragua, said Dr. Almendarez.
In our country, despite the multiple efforts made by the Central Government through MINSA to reduce the incidence of this type of cancer, some 869 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year, according to estimates by the World Cancer Organization. Health (WHO), but the most worrying thing is that projections of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a WHO agency, by the year 2020 (7 years) some 6,952 new cases will have been added to the current incidence which threatens to exceed the current capabilities of the National Radiotherapy Center (SNR), said Lic. Martínez.
The 2012 Continuity Forum was an initiative of the abc* Foundation, a non-profit organization whose co-chairs are Emilio Azcárraga, president of Grupo Televisa; Angélica Fuentes, Executive Director of the Omnilife Group; Jorge Vergara, president and founder of Grupo Omnilife, Guillermo Romo, president of Grupo Mega; and Mario Scarpetta, director of Inversiones Argos.
