Heart and Cancer Centre at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi

While in sub-Saharan Africa, infectious diseases represent the biggest health burden, chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are becoming a public health issue. In East Africa, in 2002, the number of deaths from cardiovascular diseases was 131,000, of which 42,900 were in Kenya, and the number of cancers was 52,000, of which 16,700 were in Kenya. By 2030, the numbers should double. However, the health systems are not prepared for this epidemiological transition: nowhere in East Africa was there a comprehensive sector, public or private, providing these two specialties areas. The Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi (AKUH-N), a private non-profit hospital, is the most comprehensive hospital facility in the sub-region and plays a decisive role in improving provision of health-care. By opening the Heart-Cancer Reference Centre, the Aga Khan Foundation in Nairobi wants to establish a high-level reference centre in cancerology and cardiology in Nairobi to better treat these conditions.