Nyeri will observe this year’s World Cancer Day fetes at the Karatina Subcounty Hospital in Mathira tomorrow.
In a communication posted on the County Government Facebook page, the Department of Medical Services and Public Health will use the opportunity to undertake free screening for all types of cancers and also offer nutritional counselling to the public.
The Department of Medical Services and Public Health will be partnering with Amref Health Africa, Grounds for Health, City Eye Hospital and the Aga Khan University Hospital.
“The Department of Medical Services and Public Health, together with our partners, have organized a mega Cancer screening outreach, on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at Karatina Subcounty Hospital as we commemorate World Cancer Day. We gladly take this chance to welcome each one of us to benefit from this noble initiative,” read the post.
The theme for this year is “United in our goals, unique in our needs.”
The celebrations are held on February 4 every year with raising awareness about cancer prevention, detection, and treatment.
County Director for Health Dr Nelson Mureu has urged members of the public from all walks of life to take advantage of the one-day event in order to know their health status.
He described cancer as a health burden in the county and said the only panacea for the disease is to go for early screening and offering treatment for those affected.
“The state of the county as far as cancer cases are concerned is chilling. The situation is bad and that is why we want the public to come out and get screened. Those who will be diagnosed with the disease will be referred for treatment to our respective health facilities while those needing advanced treatment such as Radiotherapy can be referred for specialized treatment at either Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital or the Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital,” he stated.
During his state of the County address in December last year, Nyeri Governor, Dr Mutahi Kahiga said his government would continue to embark on offering quality curative and promotive health care services to residents of the county.
The County boss noted that strengthening primary health care remains key in attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for each and every person irrespective of his or her socio-economic status while cautioning that rehabilitative and palliative services are not the panacea in reducing the disease burden currently plaguing the county.
“The County invested in specialized services such as renal dialysis, oncology, intensive care unit, high dependence unit, diagnostic laboratory and imaging services for high level of care treatment. Other remarkable success stories in the health services include; the outpatient attendance increase to 1,638,725 customers across all public health facilities which is an indication of our citizen’s preference to seek health care services in our health facilities.
Cancer remains a major public health burden in the country that has put a strain on thousands of families owing to the huge financial costs that come with treating their loved ones diagnosed with the disease.
Kenya reported 42,000 new cancer cases and 27,000 cancer-related deaths in 2020 according to statistics from the National Cancer Institute.
The Status of Cancer in Kenya Report 2022/2023 revealed that breast, cervical, prostate, oesophagus, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are the five most prevalent cancers, accounting for 48 per cent of the cancer burden in the country.
Out of all new cancer cases in the country, cervical and breast cancer contribute 23 per cent of all cancer-related deaths in the country.
By Samuel Maina