Murang’a County to end HIV/AIDs as a disease of public health concern

Murang’a,

Friday, December1, 2023

KNA by Purity Mugo

Interruptions in treatment among adolescents and young adults have been identified as a significant challenge in the fight against HIV.

Murang’a County AIDS and STIs Control Officer (CASCO), David Kinyanjui, has said that the county has made notable progress in treatment and prevention of HIV and is on course towards ending HIV/AIDs as a disease of public health concern.

“Stigma and lack of social support are some of the factors that affect adherence to drugs especially among people between the ages of 15 to 19,” Kinuthia said.

Speaking during the World Aids Day celebrations at Kabati market, the CASCO however noted that 95.6 percent of people under Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) have achieved viral suppression while 4.4 percent who are mostly young people have not achieved viral suppression which can be attributed to medication adherence issues.

The county has therefore put in place an Adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYPLHIV) programme to support young people in a campaign dubbed Operation Triple Zero (OTZ).

He noted that adolescents and Young People aged 10 to 24 bear a disproportionate burden of HIV in Kenya and therefore tend to have lower suppression rates compared to adults, often due to lower treatment adherence among other factors such as lack of access to age-appropriate care, provider bias, and self-stigma.

The OTZ program that is based on peer support and teaches the principles of Zero missed appointments, Zero missed drugs and Zero viral load and focuses on providing treatment literacy at the health facilities during OTZ club meetings on HIV self-management to AYPLHIV in order to motivate them to adhere to their scheduled clinic appointments and take their drugs consistently so as to achieve viral suppression.

“The mentorship, which usually happens during school holidays is successful as with support the cases of interrupted treatment go down,” he said.

Murang’a county is also working toward the UNAIDS 95/95/95 campaign that targets at 95 percent of estimated persons to know their status through testing, 95 of those identified be put on ART and 95 percent of those on ART achieve Viral suppression.

According to Kinuthia, Murang’a county statistics put the rate of identification at 86 percent, that of ART uptake at 91percent of those identified with 89 percent of those identified having achieved viral suppression.

“As a county, identification is a challenge and many people still do not know their status,” he noted.

He said that this year’s world AIDS day celebrations aim at involving communities in the fight against new HIV Infections, noting that the people at a high risk of contracting HIV are female sex workers, men who have sex with men and people who eject drugs.

According to 2023 HIV estimates, Murang’a County has had 261 HIV related deaths this year with the leading cause of death being non communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes and cancer.

The county has 50 HIV clinics spread across the county with the largest clinic being Maragua sub-county hospital, followed by Murang’a level 5 hospital and Makuyu health centre respectively.

The county has recorded 178 new infections this year.

There has been a 27 percent increase in the number of new infections among people the ages of 10 to 19 years old and a five percent increase among people the ages of 15 to 24.

The county has 500 mothers in the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) program while the rate of Mother to Child transmission is 8.4 percent while the national rate stands at 8.6 which is above the national target of less than five percent.

The CASCO attributed the increases in new infections to shortage of condoms supplied by the national government and lack of a robust program targeting young people.

“There is need for the Ministry of Health and stakeholders to leverage the primary healthcare system in sensitizing the public and through enlisting the help of community health promoters (CHPs) at the grassroots level,” he said.

In spite of the challenges the coordinator noted that there has been a consistent reduction in the number of HIV related deaths in the county.

This year, the world Aids day was marked on December 1, 2023 under the theme “Let Communities Lead”. 

Courtesy ; KNA