One in every two women diagnosed with cervical cancer dies of the disease despite it being preventable, the Health ministry has said.
Ministry head of the National Cancer Control Programme Anne Ng’ang’a said the biggest challenge was late diagnosis and the high cost of treating the disease at its advanced Stage Four.
She said in some cases treatment was limited due to the high number of cancer patients countrywide.
According to a 2018 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Kenya has the highest number of cancer cases in East Africa, with 32,987 deaths annually.
Cervical cancer was mentioned as the main killer in the region, accounting for 14,282 deaths of the 83,426.
Data from the ministry shows that there are an estimated 5,250 new cases of cancer of the cervix reported every year, with 3,268 deaths under the same period. This means more than half of those diagnosed with the disease die.
Dr Ng’ang’a said Kenya was among the top 20 countries in the world with the highest number of cervical cancer cases.
There are plans by the Government to start vaccination of girls aged 10 from May this year against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which is one of the risk factors of cervical cancer.
HPV, a group of more than 100 viruses, of which 13 are cancer causing, according to WHO, has also been found to cause cancer of the vulva, anal, vagina and penis.
January being the cervical cancer awareness month, Dr Ng’ang’a said, women should take advantage of the free cancer screening in selected hospitals. “We want Kenyans to stop worrying about cervical cancer," he said.