RIYADH, 9 January — Ministers of Health from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) started a meeting here yesterday to study proposals to raise customs tariff on cigarettes to 200 percent. The move comes in the wake of several reports, which attributed the high incidence of cancer in the region to tobacco consumption.
Saudi Arabia alone has reported 39 cases per 100,000 population. The prevalence rates in other Gulf countries, however, are lower than this, officials told the two-day conference, which was opened by Minister of Health Dr. Osama Shubokshi.
He said the ministers discussed a range of issues including a plan to discourage smoking and another plan to promote awareness about health issues like heart diseases, diabetes, malaria, Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and other endemic diseases at the inaugural session. They also reviewed proposals to tie up with the UN agencies to fight these diseases.
Dr. Shubokshi said the Gulf states have already recommended measures to check diabetes, whose prevalence rate has been reported to be very high in the Kingdom and Oman. He said that there are cases in which 50 percent of the diabetes patients do not know that they have the disease. A GCC panel of experts is currently working to map out a future strategy to fight diseases like diabetes and cancer, he noted.
A report released on the occasion said 10.2 percent of all cancers in the region occur before the age of 15 and 29.8 percent after the age of 64. Nineteen percent of the patients in the Gulf suffer from breast cancer.
The conference will conclude here today with a number of recommendations.
