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Kenya's HIV infections on decline: report

Xinhua, October 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenya's HIV prevalence rate has declined by 7 percent from 2010 to 2015, said a report launched in Nairobi on Thursday.

According to the report that was released by the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), new infection cases among adults dropped from 83,097 in 2010 to 77,648 in 2015.

"The successful implementation of the HIV prevention and treatment program has shown positive results," the Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri said during the launch of the report.

Muraguri said that although prevalence still remains high at 5.9 percent, a combination of increased awareness, scale-up of prevention and treatment programs will lead to a sustained decline of HIV prevalence in the country.

Muraguri also announced plans to include AIDS treatment in social insurance coverage to enable infected persons to get quick medical attention from institutions of their choice.

The report said the number of new infections among the youths aged 15-24 also declined from 37,566 in 2010 to 35,776 in 2015, marking a decrease of 5 percent.

Among the children, new infections declined by 46 percent over the period from 12,358 in 2010 to 6,613 in 2015.

The report also reveals that the number of AIDS-related orphans declined from 959,334 in 2010 to 661,119 in 2015.

Executive Director of NACC Nduku Kilonzo observed that the antiretroviral therapy has saved over 423,000 lives in Kenya since 2004.

"Approximately 35,822 people died of AIDS-related causes in 2015 compared to 51,314 in 2010, a 30-percent decline nationally," she added.

She attributed the decline to the rollout of antiretroviral in 2003 and the ability of the national AIDS and sexually transmitted infections control program to cover AIDS treatment and provision of care services.