More Cancer Screening Machines to be Delivered in Nairobi County

Women in Nairobi County are set to benefit from additional cervical cancer screening equipment that the county government is in the process of distributing to the various hospitals within the county.

The cancer equipment will be supplied by Guided Therapeutics, a manufacturing company from the US which had earlier on delivered the first lot of the screening machines in the county.

The county’s health department stated that they are planning to have a total of 13 screening machines by the end of this year so that more women in the county can be screened and treated early enough as a way of reducing cancer cases.

The county health department added that their target is to be screening at least 10,000 women every month, thus the move to add more screening machines in the county. The bought machines are of LuViva model, which was said to be the best in the screening of cervical cancer.

Despite the fact that the county’s health department did not disclose the total amount used on the purchase, last time when the delivering Company brought in the same type of equipment, it was stated that each one of them was Sh.3.2 million.

The Nairobi health service chief officer Robert Avisi said that they are optimistic that by equipping the screening machines in various hospitals in the county, more women will be in a position to be screened, thus early detection and prevention of the development of cervical cancer to advanced stages. He added that the chosen cervical cancer screening machine model is the best in the market and also easy to use.

Cervical cancer has been stated to be a major problem among women in East Africa. A lot is being done to see the deduction of this disease. It is the most common type of cancer amongst women in the region with almost two times more cases than breast cancer.

Guided Therapeutics stated that Sh.600 billion is spent every year globally on primary screening processes of the diseases and the amount might have increased even higher to Sh.900 billion by the year 2020.

Cervical cancer is the third most common type of cancer among women worldwide with an estimated 529,000 new cases annually, where 85 per cent of this is from the developing countries.

A research by the World Health Organization and the International Cancer Organization stated that a total of 15 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in Nairobi every week.

Article by Vera Shawiza.