President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that the death rate from cancer in Afghanistan was a national disaster.
Addressing a national symposium in Kabul on fight against cancer, Ghani said that 80 percent of 20,000 cancer patients die annually in Afghanistan.
The president also criticized health officials for lack of measures to tackle the problem.
“You have not reached out to me even a single day to discuss what to do on cancer. This is not acceptable,” Ghani said.
He added that fight against cancer is costly, but it is important to save lives.
The president says there should be clear distinction between cancer diagnosis and curing centers, and there should be measures and expertise in place for different type of cancers in different provinces of Afghanistan.
At the event, Ghani also emphasized on the importance of savings to achieve self-reliance.
He said that wasting is mostly in the construction sector, as he noted that the price of one kilometer road in Afghanistan is one million dollars while it is $200,000 in neighboring countries.
“Corruption is the biggest factor behind our lack of focus,” Ghani said.
