Experts confirm that the lack of HIV testing kits and free condoms, as well as an increase in gender-based violence and stigma, are some of the obstacles threatening to reverse the gains made in the fight against HIV and AIDS
On Friday, Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Country Director Samuel Kinyanjui expressed concern, despite evidence of an increase in positivity among men.
He stated that the testing kits are being kept for targeted testing only, a move that risks watering down the progress made.
Further, Kinyanjui said Kenya has the seventh highest number of those infected with HIV in Africa at 1.4 million people.
“Men have many sexual partners both girlfriends and boyfriends,” Kinyanjui said.
He also affirmed anal sex has contributed to the high positivity rates among men.
He decried the ongoing bad blood between the state and donors over the state’s bid to tax condoms coming into the country.
“Why tax something coming to help the population?” Kinyanjui posed.
According to Kinyanjui, between Sh25,000 and Sh30,000 is needed to take care of an infected person every year but interventions such as condoms can help the state to save the amount.
He said in 2020, the positivity rate of men was slightly above 1.8 percent but hit 3.1 percent in 2022.
In 2021, women had a positivity rate of about 2.5 percent, and 2.7 percent in 2022.
Kinyanjui said in 2020, the HIV positivity ratio for those less than 10 years of age was 1.6 percent, 2.7 percent (2021), 2.4 percent (2022), and 2.9 percent in the first and second quarters of 2023.
The positivity ratio for those aged 10 to 14 years was 1.1 percent in 2020, 1.6 percent in 2021, 2.2 percent (2022), and 2.1 percent in the first and second quarters of 2023.
Kinyanjui said high HIV positivity rates in the first and second quarter of 2023 were found between HIV-positive partners (17%), those who use injectable drugs (6.7%), and non-consensual sex and rape (4%).
He said 96,601 patients are covered by care as of the first and second quarter of 2023.
Kinyanjui said 65,336 were females while 31,265 are males.
He said the viral load coverage in 2019 was 54 percent, 82 percent in 2020, and 65 percent in 2021.
In 2021, viral load suppression stood at 87 percent.
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says if taken as prescribed, HIV medicine reduces the amount of HIV in the body (viral load) to a very low level, which keeps the immune system working and prevents illness.
