BANGKOK, 30 June 2011– The Ministry of Public Health is joining hands with related units to develop an effective cancer prevention and treatment system after it is found that cancer killed over 56,000 Thai people in 2009 alone.
According to Permanent Secretary for Public Health Medical Doctor Paijit Warachit, cancer situation in Thailand has become serious as the number of patients and fatalities tends to rise continuously. Cancer is now the number one killer of Thai people each year.
In 2009, there were 56,058 patients killed by cancer, which accounted for 20% of the total fatalities in the nation, and there were more men killed by cancer than women. Most common cancers were found in lungs, bronchi, breasts, large intestines and anuses.
The Ministry of Public Health hence is speeding up the development of cancer prevention and treatment system and has been doing it since last year. The project, which will last until 2014, is aimed at studying the genuine situation of cancer through officials’ visits to local people during which high quality prevention service is also provided thoroughly.
