A HIV testing drive is on to fight Aids in which more than one million Kenyans are expected to get tested for HIV during a national campaign launched on Monday.
The drive is expected to target more than 77 per cent of adults in all types of relationships who are unaware of their partners' HIV status. Public Health and Sanitation minister Beth Mugo urged Kenyans to visit voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centres to be set up in most towns, residential areas and social places.
"We can not claim to protect our loved ones yet we do not want to get tested," Mrs Mugo said, adding that couple testing was important to reduce the rate of new infections in steady relationships.
Testing at night and at workplaces, door-to-door approach, and mobile centres are some of the strategies in this year's campaign to increase the number of people to be tested. The campaign, which will run for three weeks at health centres countrywide, will end on December 12. In a similar campaign last year, 700,000 people were tested.
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The National Aids and STI Control Programme head Nicholas Muraguri cited the youth as the most vulnerable groups and called for vigorous campaigns to encourage them to get tested. Dr Muraguri pointed out that denial that the youth are at risk was one of the barriers in controlling new infections among those aged between 20 and 24 years.
"Women are four times more at risk of contracting HIV compared to their male counterparts," Dr Muraguri said in an interview with the Daily Nation. The HIV prevalence among women stood at 11 per cent compared to 3.9 per cent among men in the same age group.
However, men were the most affected group after the age of 55, with 8.3 per cent prevalence.
Mrs Mugo urged the youth to get tested to plan wisely for their families. She further challenged the youth to involve themselves in productive ventures to avoid boredom that later exposed them to risky sexual behaviour.
"We expect to meet a target of 10 million people tested by June next year," the minister said.
According to the Kenya Aids Indicator Survey, there was an increase in HIV awareness among those aged between 15 and 49 years although two thirds had not been tested.
The minister called on those who had tested positive to maintain healthy lifestyles through diet, seeking medication and adopting behaviour change to avoid infecting others and acquiring new strains of the virus.
According to government statistics, 45 per cent of people who got tested are in discordant relationships, thus making difficult to monitor the spread pattern of the disease if one of the partners refused to get tested.
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I believe we will all agree with the statics released recently on Hiv/Aids prevalence rates in our country. It's true that women are more at risk than are men, and that the prevalence rate in younger women far outnumbers that in younger men. The reasons for this I think vary from one group to another and one geographical area to another. For instance, some women are so desperate to get marriage partners that they have sex with any man approaching them with reckless abandon in order to appease the men to marry them. We need to debunk some superstitions associated with marriage. For instance, young women mustn't believe that they must get married. The other reason I believe more women are at risk as opposed to men is that the question of patriarchy has put most women at the crossroads. We live in a society that glorifies the position of the boy child as opposed to that of the girl child. Our women therefore always look up to men for solutions to their problems and answers to their questions. As long as a man has money for example, women will readily marry him regardless of his HIV status. There are more reasons we can't discuss here due to time limit on my part.
On the discordance figures given, I do believe too that there are reasons why HIV/Aids exists. Reasons that even science has failed to explain. Scientifically too, viruses usually go for individuals with whom there is compatibility with the 'donor'. So the 'donor-recipient' compatibility is vital when it comes to HIV transmission. I have friends who are discordant couples: a husband has while the wife and child are negative. I also believe that voluntary testing and counselling for both partners should be encouraged especially those in long term liaisons and /or marriage. The one absurd reality however is that majority of our married couples avoid the test like a plague for they understand they are in dysfunctional marriages that have failed the test of time. Both have 'mipango ya kando' but lie to the world that they are still loyal to their marriage vows. What a paradox!
The test? Most Kenyans really fear the test? I know a lot of young people who say they'd rather die than go for the test! However, there are a lot too that readily go for it. Personally, I have been able to encourage thrity young people (between 18-30 years) to take an HIV test. The one thing I thank God for is that all of them have always come out negative. I have done this in the past four years. I wish I could do more but the same hinderance still persists: resistance to the initiative. It's true two thirds of Kenyans don't understand their HIV statuses. It's also true that most of them could be infecting and/or getting infected without their knowledge. The campaign ought to be year long not just in Dec. We need to destigmatize the pandemic so most Kenyans don't shrink each time one suggests they go for the test. That's the ways we must deal with this dilemma, and we will be soldiers bound for victory.
Persoanally I take the test each year so I encourage the young people I teach to do likewise. I don't so much as pursue guys over the age of forty for most of them will not listen to my word. They are the conservative lot that has almost taken Kenya to the dogs. I am sorrry I have to say that we as a people will best develop if we ignore the subjective and bankrupt ideas associated with the old and middle age classes that bear the largest group of reactionary Kenyans. Thank you.
Bwocha Nyagemi, Nyamira, Nyanza, Kenya.