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An illustration of Breast cancer./COURTESY
Health ministry rolls out meetings in war on cancer
Health officials will hold regional meetings across the country to slow down the growing cancer burden.
The workshops, organised by the Health ministry, target county health officials who are required to suggest activities to prevent cancer in their regions.
Head of the National Cancer Control Programme Dr Anne Ng’ang’a yesterday said this is part of the National Cancer Control Strategy 2017-22. “The ministry is rolling out the National Cancer Control Strategy 2017-22 dissemination workshops to sensitise county teams and to seek their partnership in halting and reversing the cancer burden,” she said.
She spoke in Kisumu during the regional workshop for Lake Basin counties.
Cancer ranks as the third cause of death in Kenya after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases. About 40,000 Kenyans are diagnosed with the disease annually. More than 70 per cent of the cases are diagnosed at late stages. The disease kills about 15,000 people every year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in a statement said they will support the workshops.
“We are supporting the Ministry of Health on this initiative, because cancer is one of our priority therapy areas and dissemination of guidelines is always the execution step needed to bring the best practice sharing to life,” Johnson & Johnson East Africa director of government affairs and policy director Idah Asin said.
The ministry hopes the officials can implement the interventions proposed in the cancer control strategy. The 2017-22 strategy aims at reducing cancer incidence and deaths through prevention and early detection.