Sexually active people and those with multiple sex partners have been urged to seek cancer vaccination to avoid contracting Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which could cause cancer.
The Kiambu Level Five Hospital Superintendent Jesse Ngugi said HPV is a virus that is common among the sexually active population affecting mostly people between the ages of 20-49 years of age.
Speaking to KNA at the hospital today, Ngugi revealed that men were usually carriers of the virus.
“They may, however, transmit it to female partners who then develop cervical cancer. To prevent infecting their female partners, vaccination is the solution,” Ngugi explained.
Ngugi further said that cancer has no particular known cause, explaining that some types of it are genetically transmitted from parents or grandparents to their kin.
However, he stresses that lifestyle increases the rate at which the virus causing cancer develops.
“Smoking causes lung cancer. Both active and passive smokers are equally at risk of the disease. Alcohol causes liver cancer and once the symptoms are exposed, the cancer is advanced,” he warns.
He advised Kenyans to acquire health insurance covers to help them in the event they suffer cancer.
“It is advisable that people acquire NHIF cover. “This is a cheaper health cover and has assisted many access health services without much strain to their family finances,” noted Ngugi.