Kenya teetering on the edge of a colossal cancer disaster

• A recent report by the IAEA says lack of trained personnel, coupled with the use of outdated technology, have put the country on the road to a catastrophe. The government, on the other hand, says it is formulating policies aimed at stemming the worrying trend, including embarking on lifestyle change crusades. Too little too late, perhaps?

The cancer situation in Kenya is worrying and is characterised by a rapidly growing demographic of new cases and few treatment and management opportunities.

This dark reality came to the fore after a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited the Kenyatta National Hospital in June. The daunting report born of that visit was released recently.

“The cancer situation in Kenya is dire,” the IAEA audit reads in part, “with a severe lack of medical practitioners and a large number of new cancer cases being diagnosed annually.”

The IAEA may strike a familiar chord in the minds of many Kenyans, especially because of its activities in containing the nuclear arms threat in North Korea and Iran. But as cancer spreads its malignant effects in Kenya, all indications point to a bigger and more prominent presence of the agency on Kenyan soil.

Diagnostic kits

Apart from controlling nuclear arms proliferation, the organisation is also a leader in the production of diagnostic kits and the treatment of some cancers.

The June mission, the first of its kind in the region, was aimed at “establishing a sound understanding of where Kenya stands in its attempt to control cancer, and what measures must be taken to ensure that the best possible treatment, prevention, and care measures will be available to all of citizens in the future,” according to the IAEA.

The task ahead is huge, no doubt, but experts have already embarked on the long voyage, says Prof N.A. Othieno-Abinya, head of oncology at the Aga Khan University Hospital and chairman of the Cancer Research and Communications Organisation.

“Although we don’t have reliable local data, we have started to record increasing cases of cancer in our hospitals,” said the consultant in a recent interview with DN2.

But despite the lack of reliable data, he says, two things are clear; cancer is not necessarily a disease of the rich, and that those who seek treatment do so quite late, when treatment is expensive and, generally, not curative.

Prof Othieno-Abinya, who also co-chairs a committee of the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer, advises Kenyans to adopt a routine screening culture so that the disease can be diagnosed early.

“Cancer seems to be running ahead of us,” he warns, adding that the Aga Khan University Hospital is already putting up a modern, appropriately equipped cancer screening and treatment centre.

A comprehensive cancer policy for the country has for years been crawling along the bureaucratic corridors and, as it trudges along, it will come out to the agonising reality that the only two therapeutic radiotherapy machines at the Kenyatta National Hospital are way past their use-by date.

The government has finally acknowledged that cancer poses a real threat to its people and, by extension, the economy. A paper it prepared specifically for the IAEA on the cancer situation in Kenya contends that, while a lot more needs to be done, something is already happening.

That “something” includes the recent adoption of the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010, which aims to restrain the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the country. The Act is relevant in the fight against cancer because alcohol has been found to be a major risk factor for cancers of the mouth and throat.

Biggest percentage

A study by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) found that, of the 2,292 cancer-related deaths recorded in Nairobi during a two-year period, oral tumours claimed the biggest percentage of victims.

“Of these, cancer of the oesophagus was the leading cause of death, accounting for 10 per cent (236) of all cancer-related deaths,” says Joseph Omach of the Cancer Research and Communications Organisation, and who has been involved in compiling cancer registry data at Kemri.