Kenya: Demand CD4 Counts to Combat Rising Advanced HIV Disease Cases

9 September 2024
Business Day Africa (Nairobi)
By Lynet Igadwah

People living with HIV have been asked to demand for a CD4 cell count when collecting medication to avert the alarming rise of advanced HIV disease (AHD) cases in the country.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines ADH as CD4 count of less than 200 in adults and adolescents, where the body cannot fight off opportunistic infections.

The National Empowerment Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK) notes that over the past three years, there has been increased cases of people dying from HIV despite free testing and treatment.

The CD4 count is a crucial measure of the immune system health. The HIV specifically targets and destroys these cells, which can compromise the immune system.

Kenya has made significant strides in the fight against HIV, reducing AIDS related deaths by 68 percent to 18,473 in 2022 from 58,446 in 2013, thanks to increased number of people on antiretroviral treatment (ART).

These milestones are at risk of erosion following the increasing cases of AHD emanating from late HIV diagnosis, delayed enrollment in care and ART initiation, treatment interruption and treatment failure due to drug resistance.

"When the drugs are no longer working, the virus start replicating and as they do so they are also destroying the CD4 cells which is the immunity," said Dr Lazarus Momanyi, a technical advisor at the Division of National AIDS & STI Control Program (NASCOP).

TB remains the leading cause of death among PLHIV, followed by severe bacterial infections among children and cryptococcal meningitis among adults.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows 1.37 million Kenyans are living with HIV, with 67,869 of this accounting for children aged below the age of 14 years.

Among interventions by government to reduce mortality among PLHIV is the development of capacity among healthcare workers in a bid to identify and diagnose advanced HIV disease and manage the opportunistic infections.

The government is also revamping its diagnostic systems given that some of the machines used to run CD4 count tests are obsolete.

Read the original article on Business Day Africa.

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