Juliana Kanyua Mutua restrains tears of joy as she retraces her one year journey battling the highly distressful Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer if it goes untreated.
They are the tears of joy because the discovery of suspicious lesions in the membranes of her cervix and subsequent commencement of Cryotherapy performed in the Beyond Zero clinic arrested at a very early stage what doctors said would have mutated into the harrowing cancer cells.
By happenstance, the 40 year old single mother of three and a flower farm employee had walked into a Beyond Zero Mobile clinic during one of its outreach missions in Ntukuruma village of Laikipia East Sub-County where a cervix testing session discovered the lesions which would later be confirmed to be the first signs of the HPV.
HPV is a group of viruses that affects the skin and moist membrane linings of the body especially the cervix, the mouth and the throat.
There are more than 100 types of the HPV but only about 30 strands can infect the genital areas. Although women bear the greatest brunt of the virus, men are usually the carriers of the virus, which is transmitted sexually. Men do not show any signs of the disease or suffer from it.
For the past one year, Ms Mutua has been attending regular clinics at the Beyond Zero facility in Laikipia County where she has now been declared free of the HPV virus.
Ms Mutua’s success story is testimony that cancer of the cervix (and indeed all cancers) can be successfully arrested and treated when detected at its earliest stages and the necessary therapy commenced.
Health experts in the larger Laikipia County are now concerned over the rising numbers of the agonizing cervical cancer cases.
“ The figures of cervical cancer in the County are on the rise. Many women have been identified with the cancer and referred to the local hospitals. The Prevalence is coming up. But many cases have been captured at their early stages and cryotherapy commenced”, says Laikipia County Committee Executive Member (CEC) for Health Dr. David Wangui Njoroge,
As a result of this new development, the Beyond Zero initiative and its partners are engaged in an aggressive campaign of advocacy, awareness, counseling, testing and treatment of those cases arrested in their formative stages.
“We are incorporating cancer (breast, Cervical and prostrate) screening in all our Beyond Zero outreaches”, adds County Director of Medical Services Dr. Waihenya Mwangi.
Dr. Njoroge says the Beyond Zero Mobile clinic provided a key platform towards the sensitization of women over the need for screening and testing for Cervical and Breast Cancer and the response is very encouraging.
Besides cancer and its awareness, the knock-on effect of the campaign since the delivery of the clinic by the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta in January 2015, to Laikipia has seen an increase of various innovative initiatives that have improved the County’s health indicators to the benefit of the culturally diverse population now standing at 521,934 people.
In all the three sub-counties of Laikipia namely Laikipia North, West and East, various multi-million health projects have been initiated all aimed at improving the livelihoods of the people whose poverty index stands at 57.3 per cent and HIV prevalence at 3.7 per cent.
At the local Nanyuki Referral Hospital, a new Ksh. 13 million Pediatric Ward is almost complete. In addition to the paediatric ward, another Ksh. 34 million is being spent in the ongoing construction of maternity units at both Nanyuki and Nyahururu referral hospitals.
More Maternity wings are also coming up at four Health centres that include Sweetwaters, Ntukuruma, Muthengera and Pesi health Centres at a cost of Ksh. 9 million.
“All these are aimed at decongesting the maternity and the pediatric wards in the two referrals hospitals in the county”, says the Director for Health, Preventive and Promotive Services Dr. Donald Mogoi.
Besides the two-referral hospitals, there are another 3 sub-county hospitals (three others are up for upgrading), 8 health centres and 55 dispensaries spread across the vast county.
--PSCU