Prof Elizabeth Bukusi, a chief research officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said the goal is to ensure people take the best drugs that have fewer side effects.
The current drug regimen are efficacious but there is need
more data on side-effects, experts say.
Kenyan experts
are calling for more studies on the effects of different HIV medications on
women.
They said some
medicines cause more adverse different side effects in women than in men.
Of major
concern is weight gain. In addition to women being more
likely to experience weight gain with ARV initiation, the pattern of weight
gain differs between men and women.
Some studies show women gain fat that is concentrated in
the limbs and trunk.
Dr Loice
Ombajo, head of infectious disease unit at Kenyatta National Hospital, noted
that women are more likely to abandon treatment because of adverse
side-effects.
“A patient
was put on antiretroviral therapy in 2021, but by last year had gained 40
kilogrammes. She says I can’t find a dress that fits me. That’s the reality we
have to face.
We have to
think of how do we transition women facing weight gain,” she said.
The meeting
explored changes that will provide a better quality of life for women living
with HIV and reduce HIV transmissions in the region.
Dr Ombajo
said 76 per cent of all HIV positive women in the world live in subsaharan
Africa.
“Women are
also disproportionately affected in Kenya,” she said.
According
to the Kenya HIV Estimates 2023, out of the 1.4 million Kenyans living with
HIV, approximately 890,747 were women.
“Current
drug regimen are efficacious but we need more data on side-effects,” Dr Ombajo
said.
Prof Elizabeth
Bukusi, a chief research officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri),
said the goal is to ensure people take the best drugs that have fewer side
effects.
“No matter
what you take, they always will have some side effects. The question is can we
find those that we can minimise the side effects to make it easier for people
to be able to take them,” she told The Star.
She also
said it is better to focus on men as well.
“Because
the men play an important role. They're partners in this, because a woman who
can't disclose her status to her husband will have difficulty in staying on
treatment.
And so
getting men to walk alongside, because the empowerment of men will enable them
to empower the women to be able to look after themselves,” she said .
Currently, an
estimated 1.378 million Kenyans are living with HIV, with 97 per cent receiving
treatment through a network of 3,752 treatment sites, according to the National Syndemic Diseases Control
Council (NSDCC).
Last year
on December 1, Dr. Ruth Laibon-Masha, CEO of the NSDCC, revealed that Kenya’s national HIV prevalence rate of
3.3 per cent rises to 18.7 per cent among people who inject drugs.
In 2023,
about 20,478 Kenyans died due to AIDS-related causes, including 2,607 children
aged 0-14.
However,
NSDCC says that Kenya is on track to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets by
2025—aiming for 95 per cent of people living with HIV to know their status, 95
per cent of those diagnosed to access treatment, and 95 per cent of those on
treatment to achieve viral suppression.
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The current drug regimen are efficacious but there is need
more data on side-effects, experts say.
