Although Kenya has made tremendous progress in the fight against HIV, the dynamics of new infection rates demonstrates a change in the pattern.
A report dubbed the Kenya Aids Response Progress Report 2016 shows that 20 counties that previously recorded has a low HIV prevalence are slowly coming up at an alarming rate.
Since 2013 the counties have recorded an increase in new HIV infections by 50 per cent.
"We are also seeing the number of infections among adolescents going up," Martin Sirengo, head of the National Aids and STI Control Program, said.
This sentiment is reiterated by Nduku Kilonzo, executive director of the National Aids Control Council.
"Out of the 71,034 new infections among adults, 35,000 were among adolescents and young people. This translates to 97 new infections daily," she said.
“The estimates show that 6,613 children were born with HIV in 2015 despite prevention against the mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program that was rolled out,” she added.
Nairobi, Kiambu and Mombasa counties record the highest number of new infections at 4,719, 4,273 and 2,426 respectively.
Other counties are Kakamega (1,935), Machakos (1,744), Kitui (1,547), Busia (1,467), Kilifi (1,413), Meru (1,392) and Kwale (1,068).
The report also lists Vihiga (737), Taita Taveta (527), Marsabit (152), Tana River (125), Lamu (104), and Wajir (28) as other affected regions.
In 2015, 77,647 new HIV infections were recorded, showing a drop of 19 per cent nationally compared to 2013, which had 110,000 new infections.
Estimates from the same year also show a decrease in the number of people who died as a results of Aids related illness. The report shows that 35,421 people died of Aids complications, out of which 4,987 were adolescents,
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Currently, more than 1.5 million people are living with HIV in the country. Out of this number 98,165 are children and 91,350 are adolescents and young people. Adults account for the majority of those who are living with the virus.
The prevalence among key populations is also three times more than the national HIV prevalence.
The report shows that there are 133,675 sex workers, 22,000 men who have sex with men and 18,327 injecting drug users.
Nduku added that more than 850,000 people have been enrolled to treatment and plans are underway to link those aren’t linked to treatment, to be able to access it following the new guidelines released by WHO in 2015.