Kenya

We are working in Kenya to develop locally adapted treatment protocols, educate healthcare professionals through workshops and identify and research local issues to create corrective measures.

Programme Centre

Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital

Twinning Centre

Princess Máxima Center

Programme Leads

Dr Festus Njuguna

Programme Mentors

Dr Gertjan Kaspers

Start date

2006

Impact
Background
Problems
Key Activities

Kenya is located in the East coast of Africa. It has a population of about 46 million people, 40% of whom live below the poverty line. There are about 15 million children in Kenya under the age of fifteen. The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) serves the Western part of Kenya with a catchment population of about 20 million. It is an academic and a tertiary care referral hospital, which diagnoses 100-110 children with cancer per year. The government provides funding to the hospital though it is not enough to pay for all the costs incurred and a majority of the patients use out-of-pocket costs to pay for their medical expenses. Only 20% of the pediatric oncology patients have health insurance provided by the government owned national health insurance fund which enables them to cater for most of their inpatient hospital costs.

Lack of adequately qualified personnel
A huge numbers of children left undiagnosed
Low awareness and knowledge of childhood cancer amongst healthcare professionals and the general public
Almost 30% of children receiving treatment do not complete it
Enormous distances to the hospital

The development of locally adapted treatment protocols
Training of healthcare professionals on the early warning signs of childhood cancer
Research to document local issues and formulate corrective measures
Training of laboratory staff and development of standard operating procedures for various diagnostic tests
Use of teleconferences and online consultations for patient management

Increased awareness of childhood cancer and its symptoms
Implementation of locally adapted protocols
Survival rate increasing from 20% to 30%
Reducing abandonment rates from 50% to 30%

Cancer care - a nurse's perspective Sophie Gorman is a Chemotherapy Staff Nurse at Kettering General Hospital. This month we’re...

Facts and Stats

30%

of children with cancer in Kenya will survive
10%

of the children expected to be living with cancer in the catchment area for Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital are currently being diagnosed