Concerns over quality of cancer drugs a wake-up call for Kenya

Over the last decade, non-communicable diseases have overtaken communicable diseases as leading causes of death worldwide with cardiovascular diseases being at the top. However, in a disturbing recent change, cancer related deaths have overtaken cardiovascular diseases to be the second cause of death, according to the National Cancer Institute of Kenya. Kenya now records more than 44,000 new cancer cases with over 29,000 deaths yearly. This is worrisome especially considering the prohibitive cost of cancer treatment, limited infrastructure and human resources for diagnosis and treatment of cancer in Kenya.