An oncologist who raced into the Uruguayan presidential seat with the support of the Tupamaros, Dr. Tabare Vázquez is the first to bring the leftist Frente Amplio (Broad Front) into power. In the 1970’s, the Tupamaros were an active guerrilla group and have since become a political party and joined the Frente Amplio coalition. The leftist coalition Frente Amplio has since the 1970s removed itself from being marginalized to becoming the majority in Uruguay.
In efforts toward developing foreign partnerships, Uruguay and the United States are working on fighting cancer together. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Clinton met with President Vázquez and used the opportunity to announce that at the end of this quarter, the U.S. will be announcing a collaboration agreement with the Cancer Division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to jointly develop trials, conduct research and exchange experiences in scientific research for the two countries.
This follows only a few months after Chile and the U.S. have announced that they will partner to battle cancer in a new alliance between the United States National Cancer Institute, which is also part of NIH, and the Ministry of Health of Chile. Cancer in Chile in 2006 was cited as the second leading cause of death in the country.
According to the World Health Organization, the main cause of death in Uruguay in its 2030 projection will be cardiovascular diseases, immediately followed by cancer. The projected statistics show 34% of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases and 26.7% of deaths will be due to cancer. According to the WHO, cancer killed approximately 8,000 people in Uruguay in 2005, with 3,600 of those people being under the age of 70.
Also according to the WHO, in 2005, cancer killed approximate 579,000 people in the U.S., with 259,000 of those people being under the age of 70. Projections for 2030 show cancer as the third leading cause of death. Statistics for 2030 show that 36.7% of deaths will be due to cardiovascular diseases, 30.9% will be due to other chronic diseases, and 22.4% of deaths will be due to cancer.
In 2008, the NCI and the Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the NIH launched the Office of Latin American Cancer Program Development (OLACPD). Its mission is to advance the mission of the NCI by collaborating with government agencies, researchers, and organizations to further cancer research in Latin American countries.
In the United States, the National Cancer Act of 1971, authored by Senator Edward Kennedy, has been revisited in recent Senate debates. A 2008 proposed bill by deceased Senator Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Hutchison (R-Texas) tried to give the NCI an updated role in coordinating the national cancer program. NCI works with international researchers in studying factors that contribute to the development of cancer.
When Dr. Tabare Vázquez was the mayor of Montevideo, he still put in two days a week at his clinic.
“Practicing medicine is not only my vocation, it gives me an opportunity to continue to be in direct contact with people, to see them and hear their needs,” the former Mayor Vázquez said. “Only rarely do patients touch on political issues during a consultation. But I’d feel empty and isolated if I couldn’t practice my profession and had to give up that contact.”
He has continued practicing medicine as the president. According to the New York Times in 2006, every Tuesday from 9 to past noon, Dr. Vázquez can be found at the Mammary Diagnostic Center, which serves more than 23,000 patients. In 2007, Bio-Medicine reported that he continued his weekly obligation to patients at the same center.
Today, he is still considered one of Uruguay’s top oncologists. In recent anti-smoking efforts, President Vázquez said that, “to advance effectively in the fight against tobacco, the best path is not that of confrontation. The best way to move forward is through persuasion.” According to UniFeed, persuasion to the president, means not only stressing the grave health risks, but also providing free and universal treatment for all those who want to quit smoking.
In March 2006, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America and the fifth in the world to completely prohibit smoking in all enclosed public spaces. Uruguay's president has cited reports that suggest that 7 people die each day in Uruguay (an estimated 5,000 people a year) from smoking-related causes including lung-cancer, emphysema and other illnesses.
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