Stakeholders during World Aids Day, December 1, 2017. [Photo/MoH]
Kenya has made impressive progress in confronting HIV epidemic dropping the prevalence from 13 per cent a decade ago to 6 percent.
There has been a rapid scale-up of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV which, has reduced the annual number of new infections among children by 53 per cent countrywide since 2014.
According to the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Health, Dr Cleopa Mailu 72 per cent of Kenyans have been tested at least once and stigma levels now stand at 45 per cent.
Likewise, the scale-up of Anti-Retroviral Therapy to over 1.1 million Kenyans living with HIV has enabled the country to avert close to half a million deaths.
Dr Mailu made the remarks through the Principal Secretary for Health Mr. Julius Korir during the celebrations to mark the World Aids Day.
“We are grateful to our Development Partners for their commitment to continue pushing towards our ambitious targets as outlined in our AIDS Strategic Framework of reducing new infections by 75 per cent, AIDS-related deaths by 25 per cent and Stigma and Discrimination by 50 per cent,” said Dr Mailu.
However, the CS pointed out that despite the strides, numerous challenges still exist especially the new infections among Adolescents and young People.
He was speaking during World Aids Day, December 1.