Kenya on track to achieving HIV/Aids targets - survey

Kenya is on track to achieving UN HIV/Aids targets, the latest report shows.

The targets are that by 2020, all persons living with HIV should know their status. Ninety per cent of all persons diagnosed with HIV should receive antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all persons receiving ART should have a suppressed viral load.

The report shows that 80 per cent of adults living with HIV in Kenya (15 to 64 years) are aware of their diagnosis; 96 per cent of those aware of their diagnosis are on ART and 91 per cent of those on treatment have achieved viral load suppression.

This means that Kenya has met the second and third '90-90-90’ goals.

“It is clear that we need to invest more political, financial and technical resources to attain the first UNAIDS 90-90-90 target; 90 per cent awareness of status among HIV positive persons,” outgoing Health CS Sicily Kariuki said.

According to the report, awareness of the status was lowest among men with 72.6 per cent, while the figure of women who tested positive and knew their HIV status was 82.7 per cent.

The low awareness among men has been attributed to their poor healthcare seeking behavior.

Awareness of HIV status among caregivers to children aged between 0-14 stands at 78.9 per cent while overall awareness (ages 0-64) stood at 79.4 per cent.

“Children have been left behind because initially the treatment regimen was not child friendly. The medicine was not tasting so good leading to low adherence but now we have improved and have syrup that is now child friendly,” principal investigator at the Ministry of Health Dr Peter Cherutich said.

 The preliminary results of the Kenya Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (KENPHIA) 2018 survey were released by the Ministry of Health in Nairobi yesterday.

Kenphia was conducted between June 2018 and February 2019 and was funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

“The United States strongly believes that a healthy Kenya can and will be a regional leader.  And we’ve been able to confirm that while the greatest burden of HIV remains in Western Kenya, there are also high rates of viral suppression, demonstrating that antiretroviral treatment is working, and that people living with HIV and on treatment are controlling the infection and therefore unlikely to pass the virus to others,” US ambassador Kyle McCarter said.

He added: “With these new findings, Kenya is prepared to prioritize future investments and directions that will help achieve HIV epidemic control as quickly as possible.”

According to the report, the top five HIV high prevalence counties are Homa Bay (19.6 per cent) , Kisumu (17.5 per cent), Siaya (15.3 per cent), Migori (13 per cent) and Busia (9.9 per cent).