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A MACHINE USED IN CANCER TREATMENT. PHOTO | FILE | NMG NATION MEDIA GROUP
South African company Equra Health has spread its footprint in Kenya with the opening of a comprehensive cancer centre in Eldoret. The facility is expected to reduce the burden of thousands of patients who have had to travel to Nairobi for treatment. Equra Health Kenya, which offers clinical, administrative, operational and strategic management services in the cancer care will serve a broader population across Uganda and parts of Rwanda. The centre can treat up to 60 cancer patients a day, bringing advanced cancer treatment to the doorstep of a region otherwise under-served in terms of advanced radiotherapy.
“Eldoret was selected due to its extensive regional population and the fact that the town already has a strong medical referral infrastructure and oncology experts like Dr Jesse Opakas, now the main treating clinical and radiation oncologist at the new centre,” said Equra Kenya chief executive Erhardt Korf.
The 24-hour in-hospital care facility is equipped with modern radiotherapy equipment. Recorded cases of cancer in Kenya have risen by a significant 25 per cent in the past four years showing the disease continues to be a top killer in Kenya. Nearly 16,000 Kenyans died from the disease last year up from 12,574 in 2012, according to the Economic Survey 2017.