The country will soon receive HIV testing kits for children, the Health ministry has said.
The ministry attributed the current shortage of HIV Early Infant Diagnosis reagents to disruptions in the supply chain caused by Covid-19.
“It is true that we do have a shortage of those reagents within the country. It is a shortage that we have had within for some time, for some months now,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said.
“The good news is that we have been able to mobilise government resources, those commodities are on the way and they should be within the facilities within no time.”
The CAS said different partners, including UNDP and UNAIDS, have helped the ministry secure the reagents.
Babies born to HIV-positive mothers must be tested at birth because without treatment, mortality of those who contract HIV is highest in the first three months.
Many laboratories are still facing a shortage of test kits for babies since March.
Earlier this month, people living with HIV wrote to President Uhuru Kenyatta asking him to intervene. They said petitions to the ministry and the National Aids and STI Control Programme had been ignored.
"Children are being turned away without tests, resulting in inexcusable and dangerous delays in initiating HIV-positive children onto life-saving treatment," the petitioners said in the letter to the President.
They included Amnesty International, Transparency International, Katiba Institute, Nephak Kenya, Kanco and AHF Kenya, among others.
They also accused the ministry of introducing a requirement that all children with HIV receive viral load testing before they are put on Dolutegravir, the most powerful ARV on the market today.
But Mwangangi acknowledged that early infant diagnosis is extremely crucial as it is the mechanism through which the country is able to check for viral loads in young children.
“I am happy to see a report the strawberry pill is now available for babies. Through the effort of government and partners we were able to ensure we got our pediatric dosages and so in the same way we shall ensure that the EID reagents are availed,” she said.
National Aids Control Council director Ruth Masha said the country spends Sh24 billion on HIV products every year.
Apart from infant test kits, the country is also facing stockouts for regular tests for adults.
Nelson Otuoma, head of Nephak, the association of people living with HIV, said the country is also facing a shortage of viral load tests, which determine if drugs are working.
This year, the country went through a six-month ARVs stockout after Pepfar refused to distribute donated drugs through the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
Edited by A.N
