If you are a regular chewer of miraa and can still make a rational judgement, then you might want to reconsider your habit.
Health experts have warned that chewing of miraa, smoking, excessive alcohol intake and poor oral hygiene are among risk factors for head and neck cancers.
Though chewed mainly as a psychostimulant, it may cause head, neck, throat, oral and gastric cancers.
Sufficient data is lacking on the pattern of occurrence of head and neck cancers in Kenya.
Data from Globocan 2020 show head and neck cancers in Kenya account for 4.6 per cent of cancers diagnosed in the country. They are mostly associated with lifestyle, such as smoking and drinking heavily.
Experts say symptoms can occur in the mouth, sinuses, nose or throat. They include a persistent sore, a lump or sore that doesn't heal, trouble swallowing and changes in the voice.
“For these cancers, there is no particular screening programme. We are talking of early detection. So if you fit the criteria or if something is new and shouldn't be there, you should go to the hospital," says Dr Njoki Njiraini, consultant clinical oncologist at the Nairobi Hospital.
Dr Njiraini said the overall survival rate for patients of stage four neck and head cancer is in a range of about 20 per cent in five years. Early diagnosis before advanced stages can increase survival to 80 per cent, she said.
“For example, if you have a toothache that has been there, your voice has changed in the last two weeks, you have a swelling or blockage in the nose that is not going away for two weeks, then you need to see a technician," Njaraini adds.
Dr Anthony Ndiritu, also a consultant clinical oncologist at Nairobi Hospital, said presenting early to a health facility when the disease is in stage one or two can easily manage the disease through surgery.
“When the patient has a disease the doctor is not able to cure but the patient has more time to live, and you want to make sure the patient lives more comfortably, look at the patient's challenges," he said.
"If the patient has pain, then you need to control their pain,” Dr Ndiritu said.
Palliative care is given to patients whose disease has advanced to stage four and might have spread to the brain and other parts of the body. This makes treatment quite hard.
(Edited by V. Graham)
