WHO launches free cancer medicine for children

The World Health Organization, WHO, has launched a cost free medicine for children with cancer.

This project was launched on Tuesday, and will benefit thousands of children living in low- and middle-income countries.

The new platform also aims at improving lagging survival rates.

The WHO disclosed that the first medicines are 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 around 5,000 children with cancer this year across at least 30 hospitals in those six nations.

The WHO said that childhood cancer survival rates in low- and middle-income countries are often below 30 percent, compared with around 80 percent in high-income countries.

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

“An estimated 400,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year, most of them living in resource-limited settings,” the WHO said.