ALGIERS-The President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced Thursday a national initiative to fight cancer under his commitment to protect citizens’ health.
The Presidency of the Republic will ensure the implementation and assessment of the results of this initiative.
In a message to the participants in the 22nd Congress of the Arab Medical Association Against Cancer (AMAAC) and the 15th Congress of Oncology, held at the International Conference Center (CIC) Abdelatif-Rahal (Algiers), read on his behalf by the Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Mohamed Seghir Saadaoui, the President of the Republic affirmed that “this initiative includes a host of goals and programs we seek to achieve in terms of prevention and early screening of this illness, and addressing risk factors.”
Stressing “the importance of encouraging and developing scientific research in this field,” the President of the Republic underlined “the need to orient electronuclear investments towards medical use, boost the domestic production of anticancer drugs and to involve stakeholders in the prevention and fight against cancer.”
“There must be a better distribution of anticancer centres countrywide, especially in terms of radiotherapy, blood diseases and paediatrics,” said the Head of State.
Therefore, the Head of State decided “to back the National Initiative to Combat Cancer with all necessary financial resources, by allocating DZD70 billion from the National Fund to Combat Cancer.”.
The President of the Republic also announced that “the National Cancer Fund will receive DZD30 billion from 2024 as part of the annual consolidation of its resources, in addition to other allocations from the State budget.”
This approach will enable essential projects to be carried out “as quickly as possible” for the benefit of the “categories most affected” by this disease, he said.
In this regard, President Tebboune announced the “implementation of a compressive plan which will initially enable over 2.2 million women aged between 40 and 45 to benefit from breast cancer screening.”
“These efforts will continue over the next three years and will include other age groups, especially as this type of cancer is “the most common,” continued the Head of State.
This strategy, he explained, aims to put an end “once and for all” to the shortage and lack of medicines intended for this category, stressing that a “digital system will be set up to define needs in terms of medicines and ensure proper distribution.”
He also announced that files on cancer patients would be digitized and linked to the national civil registry to “gain in precision.”
President Tebboune also emphasized that “the system for combating cancer will benefit from a national research program involving the Ministries of Higher Education and Health, the Algerian Academy of Science and Technology (AAST) and the National Health Security Agency (ANSS).”
Source: Algeria Press Service