Young people hold key to ending HIV/Aids epidemic
It is very vital that health workers handling HIV/Aids cases create awareness and ensure that people with the virus know the importance of taking precautions and adhering to medication rules.
Recently, there have been reports on the Internet about students who are intentionally infecting people with HIV ostensibly because they don’t want to “suffer alone.”
Being HIV positive is not the end of life. One can still have quality and healthy life. Discipline in use of ARVs is crucial.
Some young people may, however, skip their medication to hide their HIV status from their friends.
Access to factual comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) information is important for every adolescent as it increases their level of sexual responsibility while leading to improved health indicators such as reduced HIV infections, STIs and teenage pregnancy.
Knowing your HIV status and your partner’s is crucial and will reinforce the practice of safe sex to protect your loved ones.
HIV/Aids is a serious global public health concern, having claimed the lives of 36.3 million people so far. Further, 28.2 million people were accessing ARVs as of June 30 last year. According to the 2020 report 680,000 people died of HIV related causes and 1.5 people acquired HIV.
Since the time HIV was detected in Kenya, the fight to eradicate it is far from over, but incredible progress has been made through scientific innovation, activism and collective global action.
New report reveal HIV prevalence dropped from six per cent to four per cent. New infections dropped by 68.4 per cent between 2013 and 2021. It is estimated that 133,455 adolescent are living with HIV in Kenya. Consequently there are 18,004 new infections and 2,797 deaths among adolescents annually.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) taken before sexual activity to prevent HIV is highly effective when used as prescribed. It reduces the risk of getting HIV by about 99 per cent according to the CDC 2021.
Incase you are a victim of sexual abuse or condom burst or any other reason, start post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) use within 72 hours and the earlier the better. You can also do an HIV test.
The government should ensure that the PrEP and PEPs are available for free. Moreover addressing HIV among youth requires that young people have access to the information and tools they need to make healthy choices, know their HIV status, reduce their risk for getting HIV and get treatment and stay in care if they have HIV.
If young people are provided with accurate information to become critical thinkers, empowered in their sexuality and informed about their sexual choices, positive impact will be felt across the society. Although awareness of HIV/Aids is high in Kenya, many people living with HIV face barriers of stigma and discrimination which prevent them from accessing HIV services.
We must, therefore, stop HIV stigma and discrimination which manifests itself in various ways.
Funding for the HIV response in Kenya remains significant challenge that need to be addressed to provide scalable integrated health services.
UNAids estimates that $29 billion will be required for the Aids response in low and middle-income countries, including those formerly considered to be upper-income countries, to get on track to end Aids as a global public health threat.
The government should stop the misuse and theft ARVs, some of which is used to produce illicit alcohol, yet patients are suffering. We need to strengthen the health care system if we want to achieve the 90-90-90 target.
— The writer is a youth advocate at NAYA
