Men have been urged to embrace cancer screening habit in a bid to win the war against rising cases of the killer disease.

National Cancer Institute Director Alfred Karagu said men have a tendency of ignoring calls for early screening and most only show up at hospitals when the disease was at an advanced stage.

Karagu, who was speaking during an event to mark the National World Cancer awareness day at the Ol Jororok Stadium in Nyandarua, said the disease was preventable and treatable as long as it was detected in its early stages.

Death sentence

“We are here to say that cancer is not a death sentence. I am urging people, especially men, who ignore calls for early screening to show up in large numbers and get screened now that we have a mobile centre here,” he said.

Nyandarua Health Executive Njoroge Mungai said the county administration had come up with a men wellness centre at JM Memorial Hospital to have more men go for screening.

 He regretted that the county had registered about 8,000 cases of people diagnosed with cancer.

 Agriculture Executive James Karitu cautioned farmers against taking  produce with agrichemical residue to the market in a bid to stem the rising cancer cases.

“Some farmers harvested and took to the market their produce soon after spraying, an action that raised the risk of one developing cancer,” he said.

“Such farmers grow two sets of vegetables and make sure the one for their domestic consumption is free from chemical residues while they don’t care about what they take to the market,” said Karitu.

The executive said the agrichemical residue in crops, as well as antibiotics in animal meat and milk could be a catalyst for cancer cases reported in the country.

“We must work on prevention as the cost to treat the cancer  is high and not many can afford it,” said Kenya Tobacco Alliance chair Joel Gitali.  -KNA