36 000 New Cancer Cases Predicted for Bulgaria in 2010

Teodora Zaharieva (middle) predicts 36 000 new Bulgarian cancer cases next year, with a lack of funding to treat them. Photo by BGNES

36 000 new cases of cancer are expected in Bulgaria in 2010, with no additional funding to identify and treat them.

This is the forecast of Teodora Zaharieva, Chair of the Bulgarian Patients’ Forum.

Zaharieva has already written to the Council of Ministers, pointing out that a 20% reduction in the health budget for 2010 would seriously exacerbate the situation, even to the extent of placing citizens’ lives at risk.

“We will insist that Boyko Borisov increases the budget of the Ministry of Health by BGN 100 M next year”, Zaharieva told BGNES.

“In the last 8 years, whatever budget surplus there was, not once have they covered all the needs of patients with rare and cancerous diseases”, she stated. This money should be used for life-supporting and life-saving medicines.

According to her, an information system also needs to be established, to monitor how many people need chemotherapy or hormone treatment, and when they need to be be treated.