• BLOG SURF
KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 6
The pandemic has put a spotlight on health system resilience around the world. Demands on health care provision have skyrocketed in record time and brought some health care systems to the brink of collapse.
Public funds to purchase testing equipment, protective equipment, and later on also vaccines were cleared quickly. This resolute prioritization by governments has been estimated to have saved millions of lives. Compared to COVID-19, cancer is a long-term challenge for health care systems. No lockdowns can stop or slow the emergence of cancer incidences.
In Asia, the annual number of new cancer cases increased from 4.9 million in 2002 to 9.5 million in 2020. Until 2040, projections by the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimate 15.1 million new cases per year.
The key determinant of this development is population aging, which is taking place at an unprecedented rate across the region, causing a surge in the numbers of elderly people. It is, therefore, no surprise that Japan, the country with the oldest population in the world, has the highest rate of cancer.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 7, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
