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WHO: cervical cancer six times more prevalent in Kenya than in western countries

Health & Science

Nairobi, Kenya: Women and medical practitioners are alarmed over the increasing cases of cervical cancer in Kenya as the killer disease continues affecting thousands of women every year. Medical specialists say too many women are developing the cancer unnecessarily and facing the pain and hassle of expensive treatments when there are effective and relatively inexpensive techniques of preventing the disease or catching it early.

According to the World Health Organisation, the disease is nearly six times more prevalent in Kenya than in Western Europe, and ten times higher than in the United States.

The National Guidelines for Cancer Management Kenya indicates that 2,454 women are diagnosed with the disease every year in the country with annual number of deaths estimated at 1,676 women.

Globally, about 300,000 women die from the disease every year. Cancer of the cervix is the second most common cancer among women in the country after breast cancer.

Dr Jean Kaggia, a senior g‎ynaecologist in private practice in Nairobi, says most women in Kenya, especially those in rural areas, are unaware of cervical cancer and its risks.

“The acute lack of awareness about this cancer is partly responsible for the high number of women who don’t go for regular screening and those that get the disease end up presenting too late when it is very advanced. This hampers the fight against the disease,” she says.

Indeed, a study done last year in Kisumu and published in the International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer established that very few women (six per cent) had ever been screened for cervical cancer while many of them had not heard of the disease

This is despite the fact that Eastern Africa has the highest incidence and mortality rates from cervical cancer worldwide.

On his part, Dr Ahmed Kalebi, a consultant pathologist and managing director of Pathologists Lancet Kenya, the largest network of private laboratories in the country, says women can easily be screened for cervical cancer and treated quickly before the disease takes root.

He says through simple and effective procedures such as pap-smear, visual examination and PCR test for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) DNA, the doctors can determine if the cancer is about to develop and cure it before it establishes itself.

“Cervical cancer screening is crucial as it detects cell changes in the cervix before cancer even develops. The changes can be treated and cancer prevented thus,” he says.

He adds: “Instead of suffering the pain and trauma as well as expense of treating fully-blown cervical cancer through surgery and radiotherapy, the easier and cheaper option is to prevent it through regular screening.”

A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that training women to self-collect genital samples to test for the presence of the virus that causes the cancer, will boost screening and increase detection rates of the disease and treatment, especially among women who are uncomfortable with invasive pelvic examinations.

The study, published online by the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases, collected data from 350 female sex workers in the Korogocho slum area of Nairobi from August 2009 to March 2011. It found that samples collected by trained individuals were as good as those collected by medical specialists.

Kalebi explains that with visual exams, the cervix is checked for any abnormalities that may point to the cancer while in pap smear, cell samples are scraped from the cervix for microscopic examination to check for abnormalities. A new test, which looks for the DNA of HPV, is set to revolutionise and simplify cervical cancer screening as it is simple and effective.

Dr Kaggia says regular tests for cervical cancer are also too expensive for most women to afford, with most choosing to undergo only visual examination of the cervix rather than pap smear and HPV tests.

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