On February 21st, legislators from the Right to Health Committee of the National Congress met with Luis Fernando Verdezoto, member of the Ecuadorian Palliative Care Foundation (Fecupal), and Wilson Merino, spokesman and national coordinator of the NGO “Agreement Against Cancer”. The topic of the meeting was the initiative that seeks to create the National System for the Fight Against Cancer, which was introduced in Congress December 18th, 2017.

The severity of the disease was discussed in the meeting, which is the second cause of death in Ecuador and forecasts indicate that there will be 32.000 Ecuadorians with cancer in 2020. Merino said that “in our country, children do not die due to the lack of hospitals or medicines. Instead, they die because the system is fragile and society is not articulated.” In addition, he indicated that cancer is a painful and costly disease, but that it can be overcome through the consensus building between social organizations and public and private health providers.

The representative of Fecupal stressed that on rare occasions has the citizenship supported an initiative so massively. More than 150.000 Ecuadorians participated, which means that the minimum support of 0.25% of the eligible voters was exceeded four times. Numerous social organizations and local governments were also in favor of the proposal. “The Right to Health Committee has the moral, civic, ethical and patriotic responsibility to receive the bill,” said Verdezoto.

The vice-president of the Committee, Jorge Yunda, affirmed that it is a responsibility of the whole society to obtain the necessary resources to be able to assist those patients who fight against cancer.