23 November 2007
editorial
Nairobi — There is some good news on the Aids front in Kenya, but in it lies grave danger. The country's official Aids prevalence rate is now at 5.1 per cent, down from 5.9 per cent in 2005.
This, officials say, is due to the use of free ARV therapy for adults and distribution of new drugs to prevent child-to-mother transmission.
The risk from such apparent good news is the tendency by some to relax their guard. Many will recall that Uganda, which initially registered strong gains with its robust campaign against HIV and Aids, has in recent times seen a resurgence in the epidemic.
With the first case diagnosed in Kenya in 1984, the disease has killed at least 1.5 million people, overturning decades of tangible gains in the public health delivery system.
It continues to pose a serious threat to socio-economic development, as it mainly affects the most productive sections of society. The number of deaths may have dropped from a peak of 700 people a day to about 300, but this toll is still too high.
It is for this reason that even as we welcome the new HIV prevalence figures, which suggest that the epidemic may be waning in Kenya, we must still remind our people that the cure for Aids has not been found.
The message from the global campaign, which we must re-emphasise, is that the decline in the prevalence rate is due to a decrease in new infections due to awareness leading to a reduction in risky behaviour.
Therefore, the encouraging news of some decline in HIV prevalence should only be taken as a wake-up call to re-energise the campaign against the epidemic.
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