Amsterdam (Netherlands), 25 JULY 2018, (PSCU)- Kenya reported good progress in the war against HIV/AIDS at the ongoing summit in Amsterdam, Wednesday, even as it emerged that the world could be facing a HIV prevention crisis.
National AIDS Control Council (NACC) Chief Executive Officer Dr Nduku Kilonzo said Kenya had achieved significant milestones in taming the numbers of new infections and also reducing cases of mother-to-child transmission (eMTCT) of the virus.
The success was attributed to the commitment and dedication of the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta through her Beyond Zero Initiative and political goodwill by the government.
First Lady Margaret Kenyatta led a strong Kenyan delegation to two of the plenary sessions that took place today at the Rai International Convention Centre. The NACC boss said eMTCT remains a priority for Kenya to sustain the momentum of ensuring that mothers living with HIV/AIDS do not pass the virus to their babies.
She underscored the need to rethink and reinvigorate primary prevention which she said remains difficult because it can neither be measured or validated. Primary prevention is concerned with preventing the onset of disease and aims to reduce the incidence of infection. It involves interventions that are applied before there is any evidence of disease or injury.
Examples include protection against HIV/AIDS through either absteinence and protection Dr. Kilonzo said that the use of condoms and voluntary testing remains the most cost effective methods of prevention against HIV infection.
She further called for increased resource allocation in the fight against HIV adding that the country cannot prevent new infections without sufficient funding. On Africa’s status on AIDS, Dr. Nduku said the continent contributed 65 percent of all new infections in the world in 2017 which is the highest in the world.
AIDS2018 Conference, being held at the Rai International Convention Centre, is the world’s largest meeting on a single global health issue and is being attended by over 15,000 researchers, activists and policy makers representing over 160 countries.
Timothy Ray Brown who previously had been diagnosed as having AIDS but was later declared HIV negative by doctors was among members of the audience.
