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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Declaration on monitoring malignant diseases to be adopted

Belgrade/Warsaw, 26 November 2007

Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic, who is taking part in a conference of health ministers of central and eastern Europe in Warsaw, said that the conference will look at gathering data on the severest diseases and health-related high risk factors in Europe.

In a statement to the Tanjug news agency, Milosavljevic said that, unlike new EU members Bulgaria and Romania, a group comprising 15 EU member countries has very good parametres in reference to the reduction of the death rate from heart and blood vessel diseases, as well as malignant diseases.

The Minister said that a declaration of great importance will be adopted at the conference because as of next year a system for monitoring malignant diseases will be developed under the surveillance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission in which Serbia will have an active part.

He added that the adoption of the declaration was initialled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer seated in Lyon and founded four decades ago by the WHO.

He recalled that the EU (then called the European Community) adopted a plan in 1985 which was called “Europe against Cancer” with the aim of reducing the number of cancer-caused deaths by the year 2000.

According to Milosavljevic, the EU managed to reduce this number by 9% to 10% mostly by influencing behavioural risk factors such as smoking, when it comes to lung cancer.

Milosavljevic added that Serbia was invited to the conference primarily because of the fact that for years it has been very seriously struggling with the smoking issue.

He recalled that a health survey was conducted in 2006 which showed that compared with 2000, the number of active smokers was considerably reduced, and that citizens increased the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as physical exercises.

However, the Minister stressed that the research also pointed to huge problems regarding injuries, incidence of traffic accidents and alcohol consumption, particularly with the younger population.