Health Minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic said in Brdo pri Kranju on Thursday that her EU counterparts agreed interdisciplinary approach was required for a disease such as cancer, as well as other diseases.
Mazej Kukovic told the press after day one of a two-day informal meeting of EU health ministers that ways must be sought to cure patients thereby allowing them to return to their jobs and families so that they could live a life worthy of a human being.
Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou added that cancer was is still the second major cause of death in the entire EU, and prevention was the best way to fight it. "This is why attention should be paid to fight against all risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol, obesity and inactivity."
If the EU wants to succeed, it has to actively include young people in these efforts, because people encounter smoking, excessive use of alcohol and unhealthy nutrition already at a very young age, she added.
"If discovered on time, cancer is not terminal, it can be overcome, and...our task is that cancer remains high on the agenda of EU policies," Mazej Kukovic said, pointing out that every fourth European is diagnosed with cancer.
The meeting is to continue with a discussion on the conclusions from the third European Alcohol Policy Conference, which was aimed at enhancing implementation of programmes and policies for the prevention of alcohol-related harm at the EU, national, regional and local levels.
On Friday, the ministers will discuss ways for a systematical approach in determining priorities for and in monitoring of the implementation of the first comprehensive EU health care strategy, which was unveiled by the European Commission last October. Also on the agenda will be a discussion on superbugs.
This is the first such high-level meeting for Vassiliou who recently took over the post from her compatriot Markos Kiprianu, who resigned in February after being appointed foreign minister in the new Cypriot government.
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