- Oesophageal cancer is the most common type, followed by cervical cancer.
- Five deaths from prostate cancer were recorded with the number of cases recorded in the county being four.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
One hundred and twenty four cancer cases and 21 deaths were recorded in Bomet county between January and June this year, data from the Health ministry shows.
The data shows that oesophageal cancer is the most common type in the county, followed by cervical cancer.
From the data, 42 cases of oesophageal cancer were reported within that period with two deaths recorded while 12 cases of cervical cancer were recorded with one death.
Two patients died from breast cancer within that period while five cases were recorded with three more dying from leukemia and four cases were recorded.
According to the data, five deaths from prostate cancer were recorded with the number of cases recorded in the county being four.
Five cases of kidney and other urinary organs was recorded and two deaths while two cases of malignant lymphoma with one death was recorded. There was one case of cancer of the pancreas and one death, and 24 other cancer cases were recorded with four deaths.
Other cancers that were reported during that time include one case of colon cancer, one case of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, three cases of liver cancer, one case of lung cancer three cases of skin cancer, one case of stomach cancer, three cases of the mouth and the pharynx and one case of multiple lymphoma.
In submissions to the National Assembly Health Committee, Health PS Susan Mochache noted that in total, there are 42,116 cases of cancer and 27,092 deaths recorded in Kenya annually with Bomet recording between 200 to 299 cases of cancer every year.
This was in response to a request by Chepalungu MP Gideon Koske who sought to find out the daily mortalities for Bomet county as a result of cancer and the number of those hospitalised in order to know which between cancer and Covid-19 is the real pandemic.
The MP also sought to know the measures put in place to stem the plight of cancer in the county and why the county was recording more cases.
“Bomet is one of the 10 counties that has a county cancer treatment centre established with support from the National government. The centre was provided with equipment and chemotherapy drugs,” Mochache said.
The centre that receives close support from Moi Teaching and Referral hospital, has attended to more than 192 cancer patients in the last six months.
“There is an increase in cases of cancers globally and Kenya has not been exceptional. This is attributed to population growth, life style change, increase in the use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages among the youth and inactivity among the general population,” the PS said.
In an effort to curb the increase of cancer cases in the county, the ministry has put in place a raft of measures such as capacity building of healthcare workers for early detection and diagnosis.
In March, 22 trainer of trainers from five subcounties of Bomet East, Chepalungu, Sotik, Bomet Central and Koin were trained on cervical and breast cancer screening and treatment of precancerous lesions.
So far TOTs have trained 294 healthcare workers from 142 facilities in Bomet and 34 chemo ablation devices and five LEEP devices issued for the treatment of the cervical cancer pre cancer lesions.
The training was conducted by the National Cancer Control Programme in partnership with Bomet county and with support from Clinton Health Access Initiative.
“Every county is able to make diagnosis of the top three cause of cancer; cervix, prostate and breast. The ministry through medical equipment services has installed mammogram machine in every county,” Mochache said.
“There are 10 oncology centres across the country and the ministry has installed and additional three radiotherapy machines which will soon be commissioned in Mombasa, Garissa and Nakuru to add to the existing ones at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, KNH and Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral, and Research Hospital.”
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020.
Cancer arises from the transformation of normal cells into tumour cells in a multi-stage process that generally progresses from a pre-cancerous lesion to a malignant tumour.
-Edited by SKanyara