PHA-Exch> HIV AIDS Prevention IN KENYA remains key as prevalence grows

[eric otieno]

HIV AIDS Prevention key as prevalence grows
I wish to call upon all stakeholders in the fight against the above mentioned killer disease to work unceasingly especially in slums. Most youth from slums have heard of HIV AIDS but only one in every fifty clearly understands it more deeper. I also wish to share the attached information with the world so as to see where we should make more effort.
 
 
Published on 30/07/2008 
With the release of new statistics from the first national survey of HIV/Aids indicators, Government has the strategic information it needs to improve the way it allocates resources and provides prevention, care and treatment services.
The challenge appears to be encouraging more people to get tested, getting young people — especially girls — to practice safer sex or abstain altogether, and ramping up care and treatment among the more than 1.4 million people living with HIV/Aids. 
Preliminary results from the Kenya Aids Indicator Survey (KAIS), the first standardised tool for monitoring HIV/Aids indicators, shows that 7.4 per cent of adults aged 15-64 are infected with the virus that causes Aids.
Previously, health authorities were relying on a 2003 domestic health survey (KDHS) estimate, which put prevalence at 5.3 per cent of the population.
Prevalence is a measure of the total disease burden, including new and old infections. It can increase or decrease based on several factors, including the rate of new infections in the vulnerable population (incidence), deaths from the disease and the length of time people can survive with the disease.
Previous reports have suggested falling incidence rates, a sign of the epidemic easing.
While prevalence rates for both men and women are higher than those observed in 2003, there is an overlap in the ‘confidence interval’ or margin of error for women. This suggests that only men have seen a real increase in the number of infected. The slightly lower ratio of male-to-female infections found (1.6 compared to 1.9 in 2003) supports this interpretation.
Status report
Of concern, however, is the comparatively high prevalence among young females. Women are four times more likely to be infected than men among youth aged 24 and below. Given the higher prevalence among older males, often the partners of choice or necessity for young women, they represent an audience in dire need of special attention in prevention efforts.
Disease prevalence is highest in females aged 30 to 34 and males aged 40 to 44. It is only after 35 that the burden among females, falling with age, starts to approach that of men.
The significance of the difference between KAIS and KDHS figures for prevalence and incidence will become clearer with the release of a comprehensive report in January next year.
The report will also look at other indicators, such as the uptake and unmet need for HIV testing (four of five HIV-infected people do not know their status), the risk of acquiring HIV among the uninfected, the uptake and unmet need for care and treatment, and the impact of HIV on households.
While issues such as regional distribution are studied, nothing is said of how sexual violence affects incidence and prevalence rates, whether among women or children (who were ignored in this survey). These are not idle questions given that the epidemic of assaults on minors and young women seen in recent years is the ugly fruit of a dangerous and obviously false meme about HIV/Aids infection being ‘cured’ by having sex with a virgin. This pervasive idea has yet to be countered strongly enough.
A key conclusion of the survey is that prevention efforts must be intensified even as care and treatment initiatives are scaled up. A youth strategy has been developed to instil safer sex practices early, an important response considering the vulnerability of the youth. Winning the fight against the pandemic rests on achieving behaviour change among vulnerable groups. 
Recent studies of why HIV spreads more rapidly in Africa than in the West despite proof Africans were no more promiscuous, for instance, show that we may need to address behaviour change for people considered at low risk more seriously. 
As we argued here last week, getting the word out to ‘semi-faithful’ people — many of them men in their 30s and 40s — can do more good than addressing some of the same high-risk audiences over and over again.
Source: http://www.eastandard.net/editorial/InsidePage.php?id=1143991210&cid=16& 
 
Take Good Care of your health!!!!!
 
By Erick Otieno Owuor,
Executive Coordinator 
KAPLEN Kenya and Malaika Ecotourism International
Email: ericotienoss at yahoo.com or erick at malaikaecotourism.com 
Website: www.malaikaecotourism.com 


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20080801/09522011/attachment-0001.html>