500,000 teenagers infected with HIV
What you need to know:
- According to the National Aids Control Council (NACC), 435,225 adolescents (ages 10 to 19) are HIV positive while another 119,899 have the virus “but are not yet identified”.
- As a result, about 7,500 adolescents died of the disease last year due to delayed treatment, and the overbearing stigma and discrimination associated with being HIV positive.
- The new infections were attributed to early sexual encounters, where 20 per cent of youth between 15 and 24 had their first sexual experience before their 15th birthday.
More than 400,000 adolescents have HIV, a report has shown.
According to the National Aids Control Council (NACC), 435,225 adolescents (ages 10 to 19) are HIV positive while another 119,899 have the virus “but are not yet identified”.
As a result, about 7,500 adolescents died of the disease last year due to delayed treatment, and the overbearing stigma and discrimination associated with being HIV positive.
The report by NACC showed that Nairobi County is leading with 49,904 adolescents living with HIV. Homa Bay comes second with 46,530 followed by Kisumu at 37,110 and Siaya at 33,810 while Marsabit has 450, Tana River 360 and the least is 150 in Wajir.
In addition, the annual new infections among children (0-14 years) is 12,511 while for those above 14 years but not past 25 years is 13,148.
The new infections were attributed to early sexual encounters, where 20 per cent of youth between 15 and 24 had their first sexual experience before their 15th birthday.
The Ministry of Health also said some of the infections occurred in early childhood, as currently there are over 11,000 new cases in children, mainly from infected mothers.
Records from the ministry indicate that in 2014, there were 69,815 pregnant HIV+ women but only 52,180 were given prophylaxis, a drug to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. The rest risked exposing their children to infection.
To address new cases among the children, President Kenyatta said the Health ministry would place 130,000 children on anti-retroviral therapy to reduce infant deaths.
He said: “Whereas, we had reached over 80 per cent of adults in need of anti-retroviral therapy, we had only reached less than half of our young people.”
1.4M ARVs
There are 1.6 million people living with HIV and by 2017, 1.4 million are expected to be on ARVs.
Further, the Ministry of Health said there are at least 195,299 adolescents on ARVs, and another 315,000 who need, but are not on the treatment.
The statistics were released during the launch of Kenya’s fast-track plan to end HIV and Aids among adolescents and young people on Thursday last week
The event saw the launch of the HIV Situation Room, an innovative tool to track progress and identify gaps in HIV programming.
