Nairobi November 11, 2019 – Kenya is ahead of schedule to reduce AIDS related deaths by 25% by 2020, Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Sicily Kariuki says.
The CS said the country has registered more than 51% reduction in new infections from 100,000 per annum in 2013 to less than 50,000 with a HIV incidence currently at 1.8 %.
“We are therefore on track in our contribution towards less than 500,000 new infections globally by 2020,” she noted while addressing the High-Level meeting of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition today in Nairobi.
Kariuki attributes the progress to the implementation of an innovative and bold population-location approach which is outlined in the country prevention revolution roadmap.
Kenya has 1.2 million Kenyans on life-long ARV medication and in a span of 5 years, the CS said the country has experienced a 52% reduction in AIDS mortality across all age groups, thus attaining the Country’s target.
Among the strategies the country has taken includes the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis with almost 50,000 people initiated across 1,498 health facilities and drop in centres for key and vulnerable populations.
The country has also invested in the development of a national condom strategy that is anchored on access to quality condoms in social and public places, monitoring and tracking programme performance.
“I am convinced that community action is the key not only to HIV prevention, but prevention of all ill-health, she added.
The CS called on all Ministers of Health attending the meeting to consider leveraging on existing institutions and infrastructure to accelerate attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and make HIV prevention central to these efforts.
“With this, we will attain our Prevention 2020 targets,” she noted and called for a 30% increase in health budgets to a US$1 billion investment in the financial years 2018 and 2020 to push towards prevention targets for HIV and other diseases.
