• A new study across four countries in Africa says the family of a patient at the Kenyatta National Hospital spends about Sh3 million in the course of treatment.
• In both studies, researchers suggest the solution lies in the Universal Health Coverage, which President Uhuru is expected to launch.
The cost of treating children with cancer in Kenya is among the highest in Africa and more than 50 per cent of patients abandon their treatment midway.
A new study across four countries in Africa calculates that the family of a child at the Kenyatta National Hospital spends about Sh3 million in the course of cancer treatment.
The amount is largely driven by the high cost of medication, administrative costs and accommodation of patients and the caregivers in Nairobi.
As a result, 55 per cent of all children being treated for cancer at the KNH abandon their treatment.
“Medications accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the costs in KNH in Kenya,” says the study, published on October 27 in the Cancer journal, owned by the American Cancer Society.
University of Nairobi pathologist Jessie Githang’a took part in the study, which compared costs in Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
Kenya has the highest costs in a public facility while the lowest is Zimbabwe at $2338 (about Sh255,000).
Treatment abandonment in Nigeria is highest at 70 per cent, followed by Kenya (55 per cent), Zimbabwe (26 per cent) and Tanzania 22 per cent.
Authors said the high drop-out rate from treatment is a waste of resources.
“Patients and their families suffer the costs of treatment, both physical and financial, without reaping its potential benefits, including an improved quality of life and long‐term survival,” they say.
Because of the high dropout, only 20 per cent of children in Kenya survive beyond five years after cancer diagnosis, in contrast to the developed countries where the survival rate is up to 80 per cent.
According to the National Cancer Institute under the Ministry of Health, Kenya records about 3,200 new childhood cancer cases annually.
The commonest childhood cancers are leukaemia, retinoblastoma, Wilms tumour, lymphomas, malignant neoplasm, connective and soft tissue and neuroblastoma.
"The biggest contributor of the low survival rates for the pediatric cancer patients is the late detection of the illness," said Dr Alfred Karagu, the institute's CEO.
Karagu spoke during the recent Gertrude's Hospital Foundation second annual childhood cancer charity walk.
Dr Karagu said there is also a limited number of healthcare workers trained in pediatric cancer management while there are only two comprehensive childhood cancer management centres in public hospitals.
Hospice Care Kenya reports that only one per cent of children in Kenya have access to appropriate palliative care. Most children with cancer, therefore, die in pain and isolation.
The other treatment centre — the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital — has a survival rate of 19 per cent.
It is also plagued by rampant abandonment of treatment, at 54 per cent of all patients, according to a study, ‘Abandonment of childhood cancer treatment in Western Kenya,’ published in the BMJ journal in 2017.
Most common reasons given for abandonment were financial difficulties, inadequate access to health insurance and transportation difficulties.
Between December 2011 and August 2012, researchers traced families of patients who had recently abandoned treatment.
“80 per cent [of the] children had passed away,” they say in the study.
In both studies, researchers suggest the solution lies in the Universal Health Coverage, which President Uhuru is expected to extend after a pilot in Machakos, Nyeri, Kisumu and Isiolo counties ended.
“The creation of universal health insurance schemes that include coverage of childhood cancer treatment is essential to improving both survival and cost‐effectiveness,” say the authors in the AMC journal.