•It is further estimated that close to 500,000 women did not access an HIV test.
•Inadequate quality of health services was the biggest contributor to infant infections
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The Ministry of Health has raised alarm over rising mother-to-child infections of HIV due to the failure of pregnant and breastfeeding women to adhere to antiretroviral treatment.
This is after the data showed that the gains made in reducing the MTCT have been on the reverse, with 2018 estimates rising to 12.8 per cent up from 6.7 per cent in 2016.
According to the ministry, 24 of the 47 counties managed to significantly reduce their new infections among children in 2015.
“These worrying trends are not limited to MTCT of HIV. In the same review, it was established that an estimated 300,000 women failed to start antenatal care and of the others only half achieved a modest four visits,” the ministry said.
It is further estimated that close to 500,000 women did not access an HIV test.
“Inadequate quality of health services was the biggest contributor to infant infections, identified positive women not given ART and poor ART adherence during pregnancy and breastfeeding and new infections during breastfeeding,” it reads.
“A final push is needed to eliminate mother-to-child transmission and increase the proportion of pregnant women who receive anti-retroviral for HIV from 91 per cent in 2018 to near or 100 per cent."
Last year, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said Kenya has significantly reduced new HIV infections and Aids-related deaths since the first case in 1984.
Since then, about two million people in Kenya have lost their lives due to Aids-related deaths.
The Kenya population-based HIV Impact Assessment 2018 survey, Kenya’s HIV prevalence now stands at 4.9 per cent.
The ministry has expanded the prevention of new HIV interventions to include expanded coverage of Voluntary Male medical circumcision Preexposure prophylaxis (Prep) and other combination prevention approaches.
According to the ministry, national HIV prevalence has remained stable for the last five years with geographical variation ranging from a low of 0.4 per cent in Wajir to a high of 26 per cent in Homa Bay.
Study findings released in February revealed that more than half of HIV-positive babies in Kenya are already resistant to one or more ARVs even before they begin treatment.
The study shows resistance has been growing since 2014- the earliest year the Kenya Medical Research Institute researchers picked up samples for this study.
“This was as a result of possible maternal exposure to ART. Resistance mutation monitoring should be warranted for infants when ART is initiated,” Kemri researcher Sheila Kageha said.
Kageha called for effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The World Health Organization estimates that globally, 1.3 million women and girls living with HIV become pregnant each year.
In the absence of intervention, the rate of transmission of HIV from a mother living with HIV to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding ranges from 15 per cent to 45 per cent.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)