Business Daily (Nairobi)
Albert Muriuki
24 February 2008
More than 2,000 Aids patients who were on anti-retroviral treatment cannot access the drugs due to displacement by post- election violence.
National Aids Control Council (NACC) said 2,391 people cannot access ARVs, with Nyanza Province the hardest hit.
The outbreak of violence that followed the disputed presidential election results has left more than 300,000 internally displaced, throwing Aids treatment programmes off the track.
"Basing our estimates on the national prevalence rate, 15,000 HIV positive people have been affected, with half of them remaining on treatment ," said a statement from the NACC.
Peter Mutie, the head of communications at NACC, said delivery of ARVs had been hampered by restrictions in movement in some parts of the country.
Mr Mutie said preliminary assessment had found that most of the internally displaced people (IDPs) living with HIV are not on the recommended diets .He said efforts had however, been made to prevent the spread of HIV in the camps through regular supply of condoms, information, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for victims of rape.
So far, 10 rape cases have been reported in three IDP camps in Nairobi alone. Six have been treated.
Displacement of people is seen as a big setback on the fight against HIV/Aids.According to the United Nations (UNAIDS) update of 2007, Kenya made significant gains in the fight against HIV/Aids partly due to a reduction in the number of infections.
The UN agency said HIV prevalence among young pregnant women declined significantly by more than 25 per cent in urban and rural areas linking it to a change in behaviour and a reduction in sexual offences-with improvement in the state of security.
National HIV prevalence in Kenya has decreased from a high of 14 per cent in the mid-1990s to five per cent in 2006.
Decline in prevalence was most profound in the urban areas such as Busia, Meru, Nakuru and Thika, where median prevalence declined from 28 per cent in 1999 to nine per cent in 2003 among 15-49-year-old women attending antenatal clinics, and from 29 per cent in 1998 to nine per cent in 2002 among those aged 15 to 24 years.
NACC warned that these gains could be lost if a settlement is not found to the political impasse to enable HIV patients return home. "If the situation is not urgently contained, we expect a sharp increase in infections and death of patients due to the poor conditions in the camps and lawlessness that makes it easier for sexual offences to be committed ," said Mr Mutie.
He warned that the economy as a whole is going to suffer since patients who do not have access to medicine will fall sick and will not be able to be productive. "If the situation does not go back to normal, Kenya is going to suffer very much in the fight against AIDS," he warns.
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