BD Helps Bring Cancer Screening to Women in Kenya

Leading global medical technology company, BD (Becton, Dickson and Company) announced a collaboration with the Kenyan National Cancer Institute-Kenya to expand access to critical cancer diagnostics for women in Kenya. 
 
The initiative advocates for early detection and screening of cancers such as breast and cervical, as well as initial health care visits after diagnosis. Aligning with the Ministry of Health Kenya’s Cancer Control Strategy and the World Health Organization (WHO), the initiative helps strengthen capacity and resources for cancer care throughout the whole health system. This program also supports WHO’s mission to eliminate cervical cancer by 2023 through achieving vaccination, screening, and treatment targets. 
 
“Cervical cancer is curable and preventable, and can be eliminated within our lifetimes,” Dr. Catherine Murithi, global public health leader in Africa for BD told the press. “Vaccination, regular screening, early diagnosis, and treatment could save thousands of women’s lives each year in Kenya. Cervical cancer symptoms develop slowly over time and often do not appear until the disease has reached an advanced state, which is why regular screening is so important—and so effective.
 
According to WHO, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the world among women. It was estimated that 2020 saw 604,000 new cases and 342,000 deaths to cervical cancer. In that year, roughly 90% of new cases and deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. WHO also found that more than 95% of cervical cancer cases are linked to HPV. ₁
 
In Kenya, breast and cervical cancers are the top two female cancers by incidence and morality₂. However, only one in ten women have been screened in the last five years. Also in Kenya, only one in ten girls older than 15 have received a full course vaccination against HPV₃.

“BD welcomes this opportunity to partner with the Kenya Ministry of Health and County governments to help reduce rates of cervical cancer and advance the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy for Cervical Cancer Elimination,” Dr. Murithi continued.
 
The program will be run by the Nairobi County in strong collaboration between its government and BD. 
 
BD supports the program through cervical cancer awareness campaigns; Establishing a Rapid Diagnostic Center in Nairobi at Mana Lucy Hospital; installing a high volume automated molecular diagnostic system at Nairobi’s Nation Reference Laboratory; training community health volunteers about HPV, self-sampling, and distributing self-collection kit at local clinics; and strengthening the local health care referral networks and linkage care for the digital tracking of samples and reporting sample results. 

CEO of the National Cancer Institute Kenya, Dr. Elias Melly said, “Kenya is experiencing a high burden of cancer disproportionately affecting women. The launch of this novel rapid access cancer screening and diagnosis program will help achieve our targets in reducing premature mortality from cervical and breast cancers.”
 
“At BD, we believe our opportunity goes beyond developing meaningful health care technologies to helping ensure these innovations are available to people regardless of geography, demographics or socioeconomic status. Through this partnership, we look to reach meaningful and sustainable impact in Kenya and explore opportunity to further this program in underserved countries with comparable cancer challenges,” said BD’s senior director of global public health, Caitlin Asjes.
 

References
¹ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cervical-cancer
² https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/cervical-cancer-country-profiles
³ https://gco.iarc.fr/today/fact-sheets-populations