State council partners with Njuri Ncheke to fight teen pregnancies and HIV in Meru

Health stakeholders in the country have urged the communities to play an active role in fighting HIV and Aids to achieve an epidemic-free state by 2027.

Speaking in Meru during the interaction with the various communities, the stakeholders said the pandemic will end once it becomes everyone's concern.

Led by the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) chief executive officer Ruth Masha, they urged the community to embrace various processes initiated by other counties in the fight against the disease.

She said that Meru County is one of the counties with rising numbers of teenage pregnancies.

"Meru county has been one of the counties which are largely contributing in teenage mothers since the year began and that's why we're here to look at how we can have the solution," she said.

Further, she said the NSDCC has engaged the Njuri Ncheke who plays a pivotal role in shaping the community, to break the early pregnancies menace.

She anticipates community participation as a major controller of the events.

"Community sensitisation towards the practices leading to increased cases of teenage pregnancies will seek to urge the people to accept that they cannot continue having surging numbers of teen mothers," she said.

Masha said teen pregnancies are among the contributors to increasing cases of HIV and Aids within counties like Meru.

The counties of Homabay and Kiambu boast various communities participating in activities to fight HIV.

Speaking during the event, Kiambu County Director of Public Health Teresia Kariuki said her county has integrated several plans that will catapult the fight against HIV and Aids.

Kariuki said the integration of several groups in the community has seen Kiambu County drop in statistics compared to earlier.

Among the key initiatives the county department of health has initiated, according to Kariuki, is improved health education dissemination, technology integration and timely information dissemination and data-driven decision making among others.

"We have to improve on community engagements to pass the necessary information to the right people who interact directly with the impacted people," she said.

Further, she said the county is looking forward to enlarging the engagement circle to see churches, boda boda groups and youth come on board to continue with the agenda.

Meru County public health boss Dr Martin Thuranira said Meru County is taking a disastrous turn as among most infected persons are the youth.

According to the National Syndemic Disease Control Council report of 2022, Meru County registered new 543 cases of HIV infections, most of them being adolescents.