Kisumu county is set to establish
the Western Kenya Cancer Comprehensive Care Center at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital.
This centre will offer radiotherapy services, chemotherapy and palliative care for cancer patients in the region.
This follows signed memorandum of Understanding with
Cancer Care, Merck Pharmaceuticals and Maseno University.
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Deputy governor Mathews Owili on Wednesday said there was an
urgent need for a comprehensive cancer care centre in Kisumu.
He said case management is an instrumental component of cancer control yet health facilities offering comprehensive care is limited, with many people suffering as they seek cancer services especially radiotherapy.
“Most of them have to go to Nairobi and Uganda, they face very long queues and long delays to access radiotherapy,” he said during the dissemination of the National Cancer Control Strategy 201-2022 in the county.
“This effort has been made possible through the generous support of Merck which is supporting the project by funding construction of a bunker for the proposed facility through its flagship Merck Cancer Access Programme,”Owili said.
He added that together with governor Anyang Nyong’o they have identified cancer control to be a priority
Intervention in the County Department of Health.
The deputy governor expressed concern that the number of cervical
cancer cases reported in the health facilities has is increased from 285 in 2015 to 395 in 2017.
“I am concerned that a substantial proportion of the cancer cases present late when medical intervention cannot significantly improve their prognosis. In this regard, it is the priority of my government to expand access to cancer screening services to ensure that cancer cases are identified early enough,” he said .
Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with approximately 14 million new cases reported in annually.
The disease is the second leading cause of death globally and was responsible for 8.8 million deaths in 2015.
Globally, every 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer.
Of these deaths, about 70 per cent occur in low- and middle-income countries
In Kenya, an estimated 40,000 new cancer cases and 28,000 cancer deaths occur each year making cancer the third leading cause of mortality and accounting for 7 per cent of all annual deaths.
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