PREVENT

Prevention is the effort made to anticipate in advance and prevent certain negative or undesirable situations, actions or consequences.

The philosophy of Prevention is a positive process. It supports individuals and systems to cope with the challenges of life events and changes, creating the conditions that promote healthy behaviours and lifestyles.

The realisation that the major problems of the population cannot be solved by medical care alone but require a more general social effort gave rise to a series of actions by the community that can influence morbidity and premature mortality rates. The effective prevention of disease and improvement of health in general depends on the way each individual deals with health issues (eating habits, physical activity, smoking, etc.) as well as on socio-economic and working conditions.

Information, enlightenment and awareness-raising about each method of prevention is crucial in helping people to make the right choices and adopt healthy habits, i.e. to have an active participation that will demonstrate responsibility towards themselves and society as a whole.

Health equity means that everyone has a fair and equitable chance to prevent, find, cure and survive cancer.

"The greatest enemies to health are not germs, viruses and cancer, but poverty, ignorance and human exploitation"

(Τριχόπουλος, 1982)