Policy on Routine Early Screening of Cancer of the Cervix and Treatment amongst HIV Positive is Decreasing the Cancer Prevalence in Young Women at a Western Kenya Hospital.

Abstract

In many Low and middle income countries HIV and cervical cancer have always been interlinked, as HIV patients are more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer at a young age. The policy in Kenya is to screen all HIV positive women for cancer of the cervix. Objective: This study aimed to explore the increase in incidences of advanced cervical cancer in young HIV Negative women, as compared to HIV Positive, presenting at the hospital. Methodology: A review of hospital records of all patients aged 13-35 years presenting with Cancer of the Cervix regardless of HIV status at time of diagnosis in the period 2012 - 2019 of the study and purposive active recruitment of same age set in the 2020 – 2021period. Findings: After the introduction of routine voluntary early screening of HIV +VE women, there was an increase of 15.91% of routine early screening of cancer of the cervix in the young HIV +VE patients as compared to their HIV –VE counterparts, from 3.85% to 19.76% in the 2012-2019 and 2020-2021 study periods. Conclusion: Our conclusion is that apparently due to the early routine cancer of the cervix screening of young HIV positive women, cases are being diagnosed very early, in the pre-cancer and early stages, leading to early treatment and remission, in turn leading to the increased contribution of young HIV negative women with advanced cancer of the cervix.