15 million Kenyans do not know their HIV status

Health experts have warned that unless more people volunteer to be tested for Aids, the war against the disease might not be won.

Liverpool VCT, care and treatment director Nduku Kilonzo said more than 15 million Kenyans were unaware of their HIV status.

“The low number of people who have been tested for HIV calls for innovative approaches in a bid to realise the country’s target of testing 80 per cent of the population by 2010,” Dr Kilonzo said.

People who know their HIV status early tend to become sexually responsible, according to experts.

Latest Aids study

The latest Aids study shows that 84 per cent of HIV infected people do not know their status while 61 per cent regard themselves to be low risk to HIV infection.

Kenya Medical Research Institute (CDC) technical adviser Patricia Oluoch said a majority of couples in Kibera slums had embraced home-based counselling and testing.

Ms Oluoch said home-based care was one of the key strategies identified in accelerating HIV testing among people living in high population density with a high Aids prevalence rate.

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) support, at least five million Kenyans will be counselled and tested for HIV in 2009.