•The Global Aids Update, released by Unaids on Tuesday, places Kenya among the only seven countries that have achieved the global 95–95–95 targets.
•Unaids further lauds Kenya’s achievements in cutting new HIV infections.
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Kenya has surpassed the current global targets for HIV testing and treatment, although there are many gaps slowing the response to the epidemic.
This is according to a new global report that praises the country’s efforts, indicating that the goal to end Aids this decade is within grasp.
The Global Aids Update, released by Unaids on Tuesday, places Kenya among the only seven countries that have achieved the global 95–95–95 targets.
The aim is to diagnose 95 per cent of all HIV-positive individuals, provide antiretroviral therapy for 95 per cent of those diagnosed and achieve viral suppression for 95 per cent of those treated by 2030.
Apart from Kenya, only Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe have reached the 95–95–95 targets for the general population.
Kenya has the seventh largest HIV burden globally, although most infected adults cannot spread the virus because they are virally suppressed.
The report was released by Unaids at the ongoing International Aids Society conference in Germany.
It shows Kenya has more work to do among young people.
“National progress toward the 95–95–95 targets stands at 96–98–97. Of all new adult HIV infections, 38 per cent are among adolescents and young people aged 15–24. Based on data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, adolescent girls are four times more likely to be infected than their male counterparts and 15 per cent of girls aged 15–19 have ever been pregnant,” the report says.
Globally, about 86 per cent of people living with HIV knew their HIV status last year, 89 per cent of them were receiving treatment and 93 per cent had a suppressed viral load.
“Even in high-performing regions, there are opportunities for further gains, especially among children and men, where gaps in diagnoses remain,” the report says.
It also shows access to point-of-care early infant diagnosis technologies has increased significantly in Kenya.
“Early infant diagnosis coverage in eastern and southern Africa rose from 77 per cent in 2021 to 80 per cent last year and it was higher in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe,” the report says.
Unaids praises Kenya for cutting new HIV infections.
“Four countries (Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and Zimbabwe) have already reduced their numbers of annual new HIV infections by 75 per cent and are well on track to reach the target of reducing new HIV infections by 90 per cent by 2030,” the report says.
Globally, fewer people acquired HIV last year than at any point since the mid 1990s. AIDS-related deaths have been reduced to their lowest level since the peak in 2004.
Almost half of the people who acquired HIV last year were living in eastern and southern Africa and western and central Africa, the regions that have together achieved the steepest decline (56 per cent) in new infections since 2010.
Last year, the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council said 13 counties cut new HIV infections by nearly half in one year.
This was courtesy a mix of interventions that included viral suppression in the HIV-positive people taking ARVs.
The rapid cuts in new infections mean Kenya is on track to end HIV as a public health threat by 2027, as directed by President William Ruto.
NSDCC says Mombasa, which reduced new infections by 52 per cent between 2021 and 2022, leads the pack.
“Mombasa, Taita Taveta, Lamu and Kilifi recorded a decline of more than 50 per cent in new HIV infections between 2021 and 2022,” said NSDCC programme officer Douglas Bosire.
The Sustainable Development Goals aim to end HIV/Aids as a public health threat by 2030, generally considered by the UN as a 90 per cent reduction in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths by 2030, compared to 2010 levels.