The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) has advanced Sh3.9 billion targeting to address HIV/Aids among adolescents girls in four counties in the country.
PEPFAR Kenya Country Coordinator Katherine Perry said the programme is under implementation in Kisumu, Nairobi, Siaya and Homa Bay counties where the prevalence of HIV/Aids among adolescents is high.
Perry said the two-year programme, Determined, Resilience, Empowered and Mentored AIDS free (DREAM) will identify girls who are HIV positive for support and treatment.
“We must ensure that our girls who are sick get treatment,” she said.
She said adolescent girls who have tested HIV positive need to have more attention and focus and possibly put under medication.
Speaking in Seme Sub County in Kisumu on Monday during a tour of HIV/Aids programmes being supported by PEPFAR in Western Kenya, Perry said the main aim is to reduce new infections by combining different strategies.
“We have a number of strategies being supported by the US government with the aim of reducing the infection rate,” she said.
She said that close to 900,000 Kenyans have been put under ARVs to prolong their lives and reduce the HIV load.
Perry said under the program, young boys will also be identified and be put on treatment as one way of minimizing the infection rate among adolescents in the country.