Kenya reports reduction of Aids related deaths

Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache yesterday said that there has been a significant reduction in the number of Aids-related deaths over the years.

Mochache said the number of Aids-related deaths has reduced by 68 per cent from 58,446 in 2013 to 19,486 in 2021.

She also said that there has been rapid scale up of antiretroviral treatment, which has increased by 83 per cent from 656,369 in 2013 to 1,199,101 in 2021.

Despite the progress made, she regretted that more than four decades since the first HIV case was documented, Aids remains a major public health threat for adolescents and young people.

“In 2021, on average, at least 98 new HIV infections occurred every week among adolescents aged 10-19 years,” she said, during the ‘end the triple threat in adolescents’ meeting in Nairobi.

She said that the government is concerned by the threat of new HIV infections among adolescents and the burden of teenage pregnancies that disrupt the most powerful empowerment and prevention tool- education and will strive to prioritise prevention measures across the development agenda.

The PS said there is power of a transformative community of change, noting that the challenges share a common pathway, social and economic vulnerabilities for young people.

Mochache noted thaat women and girls bear the brunt of gender inequalities, sexual and gender-based violence, HIV, and teenage pregnancies.

She however said that this does not mean that sexual violence does not happen to boys and men and so the case of prevention cuts across both gender.

The PS has also called for the need to acknowledge that every teenage pregnancy is a clear evidence of unprotected sex that carries with it other risks beyond pregnancies.

“We are calling out for a prevention lens that involves individuals, families, and communities. Kenya has the third highest teenage pregnancies worldwide where one in every five adolescent women aged 15-19 are already mothers or pregnant with their first child,” she said.

Adolescent pregnancies

In 2021, she said that about 21 per cent (317,644) of all pregnancies were among adolescents aged 10-19 years.

 In Kenya, Mochache noted one out of every three mothers attending an antenatal clinic is an adolescent.  

Similarly, one in three of adolescents under 18 years have ever experienced some form of violence including sexual and gender-based violence.

“Teenage pregnancies negate the progress to end Aids as a public health threat and undermine the country’s socio-economic growth and development agenda.  They deprive our young girls the opportunity to equalise through education, transition to work and attainment of their career goals,” said Mochache.

Teenage pregnancy has also exposed them and their children to major health risks including transmission of the HIV virus and other sexually transmitted infections.

mochache said nine counties - Nairobi, Kajiado, Homa Bay, Meru, Kericho, Narok, Kisii, Mandera, and Bomet - contributed 56 per cent (20,803) of all the teenage pregnancies among adolescents aged 10-14, last year.