Team formed to study rising cancer

By MWANIKI MUNUHE

Kenya: The Ministry of Health has formed a special committee to study the factors responsible for the recent rising cases of cancer among Kenyans.

This follows special reports carried by our sister papers bringing to the fore the devastating effects of the disease across the country.

A budget has also been set aside specifically to establish health related risk factors associated with chewing of miraa and whether there is any link between cancer and the drug.

The committee memebers will be drawn from the Ministry of Health and the Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR).

CNHR has already provided Sh4 million to finance the cancer study and an additional Sh2.5 million to specifically study the risk factors associated with miraa.

An email communication between the director CNHR and the Ministry of Health dated January 28, 2014 reads in part: “Good morning. Thank you for facilitating the response from the Cabinet Secretary regarding our letter proposing possible areas of collaboration between the Ministry of Health and CNHR. We are pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has endorsed these proposals. For purposes of quickly moving forward, given that we are already in Quarter two of our financial year, I propose that you arrange a meeting at MoH for us to discuss the following:

“Ways of commissioning the two short studies on the health effect of miraa, and the survey of cancer incidence in Turkana County, ways of setting up a meeting of key stakeholders to propose and set up a working group on research for health priorities, ways of facilitating MoH to start preparations for the third national research-to-policy workshop scheduled for June 2014.”

The email which was sent by CNHR director Gilbert Kokwaro further reads, “I would suggest that we hold the meeting at MoH, or, if you prefer, at some nearby venue where we can get through the agenda within three hours. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with CNHR should you require any assistance in this regard.”

Given that we did not have the budgetary allocation for this kind of activity, said Health Cabinet Secretary Macharia Wainaina, and given that this is a matter that cannot wait, we had to look for partners who can help us finance the study.

“Part of the reason we have to do this is that you will remember your media house has been covering the rising cases of cancer in the country, there has also been different claims from different quarters that several factors are responsible for this rising cases. So as a ministry, we want to provide answers and we will be seeking to come up with evidence based data to all this claims so that each and every Kenyan can make informed choices based on the findings of this research,” added Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia.

It has previously been reported that the increasing cases of cancer could be linked to improper electronic waste disposal, which generate toxic substances to the environment.

A recent United Nations Environmental Programme research indicated Kenya generates more than 20,000 tonnes of electronic waste annually.

In 2010, the country generated 11, 400 tonnes of electronic waste from refrigerators, 2,800 tonnes from TVs, 2,500 from personal computer and 500 tonnes from printers and additional 150 tonnes from mobile phones.

Speaking a fortnight ago, Nema County Director Anthony Saisi said most electronic and electrical devices contain toxic components such as lead, mercury and other hazardous chemicals linked to terminal ailments such as cancer.

He was speaking in Kisumu during the official launch of the e-waste collection campaign. He said Kenya lacks capacity to recycle and manage close to 20,000 tonnes of electronic waste generated annually therefore forcing the country to ship the waste to other destination for proper disposal.

Mr Macharia has previously indicated cancer is killing at least two people every hour as the number of Kenyans suffering from the diseases continues to grow, effectively making it the third major killer after infectious and cardiovascular diseases.

The crisis cases of cancer has also been blamed on low levels of awareness, inadequate screening services and ill-equipped referral facilities and limited specialists among others

“We are challenged. We only have 12 trained oncologists in public hospitals to handle the patients throughout the country,” Macharia said in a past function.