The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that an estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said this during an online media conference on global health issues on Wednesday.

Mr Ghebreyesus said that in high-income countries, almost 90 per cent of children survive, while in low-income and middle-income countries, survival rates are often below 30 per cent.

“In 2018, WHO established a Global Initiative on Childhood Cancer with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States and more than 100 other partners,” he said.

“As part of the initiative, WHO and St. Jude have also established a global platform to improve access to lifesaving medicines for children with cancer in low- and middle-income countries.”

Mr Ghebreyesus said that on Tuesday, it began distributing childhood cancer medicines at no cost in the first two countries: Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

He noted that the shipments of medicines are planned for four other countries: Ecuador, Jordan, Nepal, and Zambia.

He said WHO estimates that these treatments will reach about 5000 children with cancer across at least 30 hospitals in these six countries this year.

“Six more countries have been invited to join the platform, and over the next five to seven years, WHO aims to reach 120,000 children in 50 countries,” he said.

“We are very encouraged to see how this programme has grown since we started in 2018, and we thank St. Jude for its partnership.”

The WHO boss said that the executive board is the second-most important decision-making body in WHO after the World Health Assembly.

According to him, in 2024, the board dealt with a large agenda covering the huge range of WHO’s work: emergencies, polio, meningitis, cervical cancer, medical devices, air pollution, and universal health coverage.

He said that to support WHO’s work worldwide, the board recommended that the Health Assembly approve the programme budget for 2026 and 2027.

“The Board also recommended that the Health Assembly approve the next 20 per cent increase in assessed contributions and the membership fees that countries pay,” he said.

“In 2022, member states agreed to gradually increase assessed contributions from 16 per cent of the base budget to 50 per cent,” he said.

According to him, the increase approved by the board in the first week of February is the next step towards that target and is critical for putting WHO on a more sustainable financial footing.

(NAN)