Guided Therapeutics, Inc, the maker of a rapid and painless testing platform based on its patented biophotonic technology, has shipped five LuViva® Advanced Cervical Scans to Nairobi County, Kenya. The Nairobi County Health Services Sector will get the cervical scans for use in the agency’s cervical cancer screening program.
This shipment brings to six the number of LuVivas acquired by Nairobi County, with an additional seven units planned for purchase in 2016. When fully implemented, the county will have the capacity to screen more than 12,000 women per month.
“Nairobi is the leader in East Africa in many areas including improving healthcare for its citizens,” said Gene Cartwright, CEO and President of Guided Therapeutics. “We are pleased to be working with Nairobi County and the Kenyan National Government on their screening programs and look forward to ramping up over the coming months.”
Cervical cancer ranks number one in cancers of women in Kenya. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and The International Cancer Organization (ICO) Information Centre, there are 10.32 million women in Kenya at risk of developing cervical cancer. The annual number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer is 2,454, with 1,676 dying every year. It is estimated that there are 15 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed each week in Nairobi County. These statistics show that an estimated 12.7 women out of every 100,000 are affected.
Worldwide, the market for cervical cancer screening and diagnostics, as currently practiced using cytology (Pap test) for primary screening, is estimated at $6 billion and is projected to grow to almost $9 billion by 2020.
