Nandi county leading with cancer cases in North rift region
Marking World Cancer day at MTRH
By James Gitaka
Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret is handling 16,000 cases
related to cancer screening in a year with 1,600 of patients diagnosed
in late stages per month at the second largest public health facility
in the country.
According to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Wilson Aruasa,
approximately 2 out 5 cancer patients are diagnosed at stage four; a
trend he said was making treatment of the disease expensive.
Aruasa was addressing the media today at the hospital after flagging
off a procession that included the hospital staff, officials from the
Uasin Gushy county led by the CEC for Health Dr Sammy Kotut and civil
society groups to mark the World Cancer Day whose them is :”Clear the
care gap:”
Aruasa said the most recorded cases of cancer in North Rift region
were breast cancer followed by cervical and esophageal cancer cases
among both men and women and expressed fear that if not unchecked it
could cause a serious burden in the cost of treatment.
The CEO pointed out that the hospital was receiving hundreds of cases
related to cancer from neighbouring counties of Nandi, Elgeyo
Marakwet, Trans Nzoia and West Pokot.
“We have state of the art cancer screening machines that can handle
cases related to cancer which are normally referred to our health
facility from various counties in North Rift and Western region
respectively,” assured Aruasa.
Aruasa implored upon the national government to expedite the
employment of more oncologists in public hospitals across the country
to address the rising cases of cancer.
Saying that cancer was not only manageable and treatable, Aruasa
called on the government to urgently address the issue of shortage of
oncologists to save more lives from loss due to the disease.
“There is an urgent need on the part of the government to increase the
number of oncologists in our public hospitals to deal with rising
cancer cases in the country. At MTRH we only have three oncologists
who are expected to serve hundreds of cancer cases referred to the
facility from neighbouring counties,” said Aruasa.
Uasin Gishu County Executive Committee member in charge of Health Dr
Sammy Kotut lifestyle and low public awareness of early cancer
symptoms among patients is to blame for rising cases of the disease in
the country.
“The situation has been made worse due to acute shortage of
oncologists in national and county hospitals thus hindering provision
of quality services to patients difficult,” added Kotut
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