18 July 2008
editorial
Kenya should take note of recent shifts on the HIV pandemic and plan its future actions accordingly.
First was the announcement a month ago by senior officials of the World Health Organisation and UNAids that while HIV remains the biggest health challenge in man's history, it no longer posed the danger of a global epidemic.
An HIV epidemic, they said, is only a reality in Africa, not the rest of the world.
Although seemingly unrelated, last week, a major pharmaceutical transnational, Roche, announced that it was suspending its HIV drugs research division for "lack of new scientific advances". This development comes soon after most of the world, including Kenya, suspended research on a vaccine against HIV.
These disappointments viewed with the new thinking - that HIV is mainly an African problem - could eventually shift the West's attention to other "profitable" diseases in their own backyard.
This could translate into less funding for HIV control in Africa, less investment in new drugs, diagnostic tools, and vaccines. This is a development that could totally cripple Aids programmes in the country.
Not to be caught unawares, the Government must fund most of these activities from the national budget. Actually this should have happened a long time ago to minimise programme disruptions for lack of donor funding.
It is time Kenya, and Africa in general, took their destiny in their own hands.
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