Kisumu unveils Mobile Health program to boost cervical cancer management

The county government of Kisumu has launched a mobile health program for women to help in screening and treatment of cervical cancer.

Through partnership with Cure Cervical Cancer (CCC), the program targets to screen 76,000 women aged between 30-49 across the county over the next three years.

Kisumu County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of health Dr. Gregory Ganda said through the initiative, 2, 000 women have been screened in Muhoroni Sub-County where over thirty outreaches have been held in the last two months.

The program which entails use of rapid tests, he said has helped in the management of the disease since results are released within two hours.

“Unlike the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) HPV test which is costly and requires one to go to the hospital, do a test and get results in 2 days this program has come up with a way for tests to be done in a few hours within the community,” he said.

Community health volunteers, he said, were being used to sensitize the community before a mobile health clinic is deployed in a specific area to conduct the tests.

Dr. Ganda noted that the tests are self-collected, and the sample obtained is tested and the result given within 2 hours.

“Those who are found negative, don’t have to screen again for another five years. Those who return positive results are put on an on-spot treatment called thermocoagulation,” he disclosed.

The program, he added, is more effective as health workers will be moving from one community to another, especially in remote corners of the county where health facilities are far from the community.

The mobile health clinics, he said, will also offer HPV and Covid 19 vaccines urging the community to embrace early detection and prevention as a major tool in fighting cervical cancer.

“As Kisumu county, we are interested in the community based approach where health is brought to the doorstep of people through structures that exist and family health approach for those living in the urban areas,” he said.

Speaking in Muhoroni on Friday during the launch of the program, Kisumu County Governor’s wife Dorothy Nyong’o said an electrical procedure to treat pre-cancer lesions has been introduced at the Muhoroni County Hospital to help manage cancer patients.

Specialized services, she added, have also been rolled out at the facility with an obstetrician gynecologist available to review referred cases.

She decried the poor turnout by women to screen for cervical cancer despite the various interventions by the county government and the Ministry of Health.

The mobile clinic, she said, targets to reach areas that are not motorable by use of motorbikes and mobile trucks to step up the fight against the disease.

“This unique approach of mobile clinics will involve Human papillomavirus(HPV)-based cervical cancer testing and will leverage existing community health systems to identify women in the community and mobilize them for screening,” she said.