Umberto Veronesi Foundation together with European Cancer Organization to ask for effective action
Paolo Veronesi, president of the Veronesi Foundation, takes a position on a particular issue of the war in Ukraine: “The current Ukrainian crisis represents a profound international crisis at the political level, but also a humanitarian crisis that is causing injuries, deaths and forcing an unknown number of people to leave their homes “He said” It could also have disastrous consequences on the health of patients, adults and children, and on an already fragile health system. For these reasons we must work tirelessly on a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis to contain as much as possible the tragic consequences of the conflict military”.
The words of the founder Umberto Veronesi are also recalled: “Peace is an essential condition of civil and scientific progress for humanity. As long as there is war there will be no justice and well-being”.
Umberto Veronesi Foundation he also joins the other members of ECO, European Cancer Organisation, in recalling that the sick and health workers must be protected in every way, that even the UN Security Council has defined attacks on medical and paramedical personnel as war crimes. According to ECO, all European countries have an ethical duty to facilitate the reception of cancer patients who need care and treatment.
Andreas Charalambous, presidente ECO stated: “We are in active dialogue with the WHO and the European Commission on how the cancer community can provide assistance”, specifying that it is also working with scientific societies, patient associations and experts to implement initiatives useful to mitigate at least some of the effects of the crisis. “Now is the time to counter the divisions with effective solidarity actions. A European effort for support Ukrainians who are already suffering from cancer and other serious diseases it should be one of these actions. “
The situation of cancer patients in Ukraine
The hospital in Lviv is just over 50 km from the Polish border and has seen its pediatric patients triple, due to the significant influx of children with cancer arriving from the facilities in Kiev and Kharkiv. The two most populous cities in the country, in fact, are among the hottest areas of the conflict. To spread the news is the Soleterre non-profit organization, which operates in several Ukrainian hospitals. But also in Lviv the sirens sound that warn of the danger of bombing. And when that threatening howl is heard, over thirty children and teenagers often have to be moved from the ward to the underground shelter, even during chemo treatments: “These are tiring and difficult journeys that add to the cancer treatment”, Soleterre emphasizes at the Time.news. In recent days, the non-profit organization had announced that it had managed to evacuate 18 children with cancer, who were treated in the basement of the Kiev hospital. The babies were taken to the oncology ward of a Polish hospital. A success, given that leaving the Ukrainian capital, surrounded by Russian forces, is prohibitive. .