Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

KENYA: KENYA: Cervical cancer, little-known killer of HIV-positive women
03 Nov 2009 13:19:33 GMT
 Source: IRIN

Background

•  Health and diseases

•  AIDS in Africa

•  AIDS pandemic

MORE >>
NAIROBI, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) - Three years after being diagnosed with HIV, Alice Mworia, 28, went for a routine medical check-up during which she told the nurse she had noticed an unusual vaginal discharge; a test revealed she had pre-cancerous lesions on her cervix that could develop into cancer if untreated.

"I was experiencing a bad smell from my private parts and I wondered whether it was because I was HIV-positive; I could not keep quiet any more and I shared with one of the nurses and she referred me to the doctor," Mworia told IRIN/PlusNews. "I did not even know there was anything called cervical cancer, which I was informed can kill very easily."

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) http://apps.who.int/hpvcentre/statistics/dynamic/ico/country_pdf/KEN.pdf, some 2,635 Kenyan women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, with 2,111 dying from the disease, making it the most prevalent cancer among women in the country. About 38.8 percent of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV - a leading cause of cervical cancer - at any given time.

High risk, low knowledge

For cervical HPV infection to progress to cancer, certain co-factors must be in place, including smoking, long-term hormonal contraceptive use and co-infection with HIV.

"Women who are HIV-positive have weak immune systems and this makes them very susceptible to persistent human papillomavirus that develops into cancer of cervix," said Lucy Muchiri, a senior lecturer in human pathology at the University of Nairobi's College of Health Sciences and a member of the sub-Saharan Africa Cervical Cancer Working Group.

"It takes a relatively shorter time for the HPV virus to develop into full-blown cancer of the cervix for women who have the HIV infection … It would take relatively longer in women who are not infected with HIV."

Pap smear tests - which check for changes in the cells of the cervix - are available at most district health facilities in Kenya, but according to WHO, fewer than 6 percent of women access them.

"I think many women die from the disease for a number of reasons - one is ignorance because knowledge about the disease among women and in the general population is very low and it is mistaken for other diseases," she said. "It is appalling that despite most cancer-related deaths in women happening because of cervical cancer, it is the least talked about or even known by people, including women."

According to Francis Kimani, director of medical services at the Ministry of Health, Kenya is planning a screening programme for early detection and treatment of cervical cancer as well as a widespread education campaign.

Education gap

"I think our best bet is to carry out education to let people know about the disease and that early detection of it can be very helpful," Kimani told IRIN/PlusNews. "It is true that not many people - especially in rural areas - know about the disease."

Studies http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2631263 have shown that HPV is higher among women who have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex.

"Maybe to prevent it in the first place, the same methods used in combating HIV, like condom use, abstinence and keeping to one faithful partner, should be encouraged in this case too," Muchiri suggested.

She noted that the government also needed to invest in making the HPV vaccine - which protects against four major types of HPV, including two types that are responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancers - widely available in public hospitals.

Vaccine availability

The Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board approved the sale of an HPV vaccine in the country in 2007, but its availability is extremely limited and it is still prohibitively expensive for most Kenyans.

"HPV is a sexually transmitted virus and with the vaccine in place, it is important to encourage parents to take their young girls between the ages of nine and 15 to be vaccinated before they debut into sex," she said.

A recent study by the local NGO, Centre for the Study of Adolescence, found that four in 10 Kenyan girls had sex before the age of 19, many of them as early as 12.

"Once they [women] become sexually active, it is important to encourage [them] to go for Pap smear tests or visual detection of the pre-cancerous lesions but even vaccination at this stage is still feasible so long as one has not contracted the virus," Muchiri added.

ko/kr/mw

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Women

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  AIDS in Africa

•  AIDS pandemic

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  GIVE LIFESAVING GIFTS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
Medical Teams International - USA

•  First Gazans get compensation from former Israeli employers
Oxfam GB - UK

•  Heavy rains ravish hunger stricken East Africa
Red Cross - Norway

•  UMCOR Hotline for October 27, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  Oxfam rice reaches Typhoon Ketsana-affected villagers
Oxfam GB - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

•  KENYA: KENYA: Cervical cancer, little-known killer of HIV-positive women

•  Pregnant women should get flu shot as winter bites-WHO

•  Somali rebels ban musical ringtones on phones

•  Clinton offers U.S. aid to help boost Muslim ties

•  One of Tsavo's lions ate most human prey - US study

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Briefings
AIDS in Africa - [Who works where]
AIDS pandemic - [Who works where]

Topics
Women
Facts & figures
Kenya

Related articles

Breaking stories
 KENYA: KENYA: Cervical cancer, little-known killer of HIV-positive women (1 minute ago)

Pregnant women should get flu shot as winter bites-WHO (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 INTERVIEW-Challenge seen in ensuring Africa respects pact on displaced-ICRC (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 GIVE LIFESAVING GIFTS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Milking for a shared future- flourishing co-existence in West Ramallah (1 minute ago)

Maps
 KENYA Kibera Slum (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-11-01T141608Z_01_ISL17_RTRIDSP_2_PAKISTAN_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/ISL17.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-11-01T115357Z_01_GAR011_RTRIDSP_2_FLU-UKRAINE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/GAR011.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-31T091324Z_01_DHA002_RTRIDSP_2_BANGLADESH-GARMENTS-VIOLENCE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/DHA002.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-30T170146Z_01_WAS807_RTRIDSP_2_OBAMA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/WAS807.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-10-30T165415Z_01_WAS806_RTRIDSP_2_OBAMA_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/WAS806.htm

Residents gather on the rubble of a girls' school in Bara in Pakistan's troubled Khyber Agency located in North West Frontier Province, after it was destroyed early morning November 1, 2009. ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Nov 3 13:20:04 2009