An Aids patient takes her daily dose of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
In Kenya, 21 per cent of new HIV infections occur among women aged between 15 and 24 while in Uganda, 70 per cent of the new infections recorded are youth, mostly girls, between the age of 18 and 24 years.
Uganda and Kenya have the highest number of new HIV/Aids infections in East Africa, but are third and fourth respectively in sub-Sahara African, behind South Africa and Nigeria.
A new report by the World Health Organisation shows that as the two governments continue to make progress in the fight against HIV/Aids, cases of new infections are rising among 15 to 24-year-olds.
According to the report, in Kenya, 21 per cent of new HIV infections occur among women aged between 15 and 24 while in Uganda, 70 per cent of the new infections recorded are youth, mostly girls, between the age of 18 and 24 years.
Emma Mwamburi of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) blames the rise in infections in the two countries on non-compliance ARV medication regime by HIV patients.
“Harmful cultural practices and extreme poverty in these countries, especially in the rural areas, have also played a role in the rapid spread of HIV/Aids,” said Ms Mwamburi.
At the same time, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) has reported in its latest statistical update that the number of adolescents dying from Aids has tripled over the past 15 years, making the disease the top cause of death among adolescents in Africa but second globally.
“Most adolescents who die of Aids-related illnesses acquired HIV when they were infants, when fewer pregnant women and mothers living with HIV received antiretroviral medicines to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child,” the report says.
The Unicef study also found that 26 adolescents are infected every hour, and only one in 10 adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa is tested for HIV. About half of the two million living with HIV in this group are found in just six countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Mozambique and Tanzania.
The report also says that girls in the region are disproportionately affected, accounting for seven of 10 new infections among 15 to 19 year-old, the study found.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest prevalence, girls are vastly more affected,” the study says.
According to the data in Unicef’s Statistical Update on Children, Adolescents and Aids, less than half of children under two months old are tested for HIV and only one in three of the 2.6 million children under the age of 15 living with HIV are on treatment.
Although various measures were put in place by Kenya, including the campaign to stop mother-to-child infection, it was only recently that the campaign to stop new infections among adolescents was launched.
In February, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed county commissioners to collect data on the number of youth and children living with HIV/Aids to increase access to ARVs.
Last month, Health Ministry launched a plan to reduce HIV/Aids among adolescents and young people.
The ministry aims to reduce new infections among the target group by 40 per cent, HIV/Aids-related deaths by 15 per cent and lower stigma and discrimination by 25 per cent by 2017.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has announced a $300 million programme to drastically reduce HIV infections in girls and young woman in 10 sub-Saharan countries.
The 10 countries that will be targets of the new initiatives accounted for nearly half of all new HIV infections among girls and young women last year. The countries are Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
