Joy for Northeastern residents as cancer center finally opened

Residents of Garissa and the larger Northeastern region can now breathe  a sigh of relief following the launch of the Garissa Regional Cancer Center.

Among services that will be available at the center include screening, diagnosis, surveillance, treatment and palliative care.

Residents of the region have for a long time travelled for long distances, some as far as India to access treatment.

The prevalence rate in the region remains high with prostate, oesophageal, and colon cancers the leading in men while breast and cervical are the most common in women.

Speaking during the launch of the Garissa Regional Cancer Center, the first in the Northern Kenya region since independence, Health Cabinet secretary Susan Nakhumicha described the unveiling as a significant milestone in the history of the country.

She commended health officials in the county led by the Health executive Ahmednadhir Omar for taking the lead role in creating awareness saying that late diagnosis has resulted in poor treatment outcomes and low survival rates.

“Through this launch minority communities that inhabit this region, who have contributed greatly to our nation through animal husbandry, yet have historically suffered from lack of specialised care access are poised to greatly benefit from devolved healthcare services,” the CS said.

"Compounded by perennial droughts as a result of climate change, these communities have traditionally continued to bear the brunt of food insecurity, access to clean water among other challenges making access to such healthcare a mirage," Nakhumicha added.

She said the heavy impact of cancer on individuals, households and entire communities through loss of productivity, catastrophic cost of care and premature deaths was well known to everyone.

Nakhumicha adding that the Ministry has prioritised the transformation of the health sector by addressing issues around access, cost and quality of healthcare through the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda.

"We are implementing the National Cancer Control Strategy which has various sustainable programmatic interventions to address barriers along the entire continuum of cancer care, from screening, to diagnosis, surveillance, treatment, and palliative care,” she said.

The CS noted that last December, the ministry trained more than twenty healthcare workers on cervical and breast cancer screening through support from the Global Fund and provided pap smear kits for screening.

Garissa Governor Nathif Jama on his part said that the county government would work closely with the national government to ensure that people receive the health services they need at all times.

The burden of cancer has been rising over the past few decades and it is projected that by 2030, more than 13 million deaths annually will be due to cancer with 75 per cent of all deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

In Kenya, the health outcomes of cancer are concerning as high mortality is attributed to cancer as the 3rd leading cause of death.

The most recent data by the ministry shows that 7502 cases were registered from 42 facilities across the country between July 2021 and June 2022 with most of them being stage three and four.

The most prevalent types of cancers continue to be breast at 15.9 per cent, cervical cancer at 13.3 per cent and esophageal at 11.8 per cent.

Prostate cancer accounts for a quarter of all cases among men with breast and cervical cancers accounting for more than half of the cases among women.

Close to three quarters of the reported cases did not report any comorbidities, however, the most reported comorbidities continue to be hypertension 11 per cent, diabetes six per cent and HIV at six per cent.

The ministry has established regional cancer centres of excellence in over ten counties namely Garissa, Meru, Nyeri, Embu, Garissa, Bomet, Machakos, Coast, Kakamega, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu and Makueni which the CS said have expanded access to cancer treatment services across the country.

"We continue to provide them with basic chemotherapy medicines through KEMSA and we are putting in place strategies to make more of these basic chemotherapy drugs available. These centers have revolutionised access to cancer care, and I'm glad to note that currently, nearly half of all cancer patients are now accessing care in these facilities," CS Nakhumicha said.