Lodwar — Against the backdrop of new official figures showing increased HIV infections in the past year, the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar in Kenya's northwest has held a weeklong workshop on prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus.

The workshop at St. Teresa's Pastoral Centre which opened on Monday was organized by Sr. Dr. Margaret Towmey, coordinator of the Medical Department of the Diocese of Lodwar. It was funded by UNICEF.

The workshop has brought together 35 participants, health workers and patient attendants. Most of the participants work in diocesan health facilities while the others are from government facilities.

Mrs. Esther Tata Papa, Provincial head of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and the Home Based Care Programme in the North Rift, said the main objective of the workshop is to reduce infection and paediatric mortality and morbidity caused by HIV/Aids.

Another aim is to scale up the intake of already available services in the three Turkana districts: North, South and Central.

National figures released by the government on Tuesday show that women continue to bear the heaviest burden of HIV, representing three of every five infected people. In one out of 10 married couples at least one partner has HIV, according to the survey.

An estimated 1.4 million adults in Kenya are infected with HIV. Among the women, infection stands at 8.7 percent compared to 5.6 per cent among the men.