The government is targeting to end mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by the year 2027.
The Head of the National Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Control Programme, Rose Wafula, said the state is set to launch a work plan for ending AIDS infection among children at Tom Mboya University in Homa Bay town today.
Christened ‘The Plan to End AIDS in Children by 2027’ will enhance efforts to fight the spread of HIV amongst minors and reduce infant mortality in the country.
Addressing the press in a Homa Bay hotel, Wafula said children had not been prioritised in previous efforts to fight HIV, and the plan would ensure Kenya has healthy children.
“Children have been forgotten in the fight against AIDS in Kenya. This plan will enable us to have a country where children are not infected with HIV by 2027,” Dr. Wafula said.
Homa Bay County Executive Committee Member for Health Roselyn Omollo said the plan would help the county, which has a high HIV prevalence, make milestones in the fight against the scourge. “This plan will help us a lot as a county,” Omollo said.
Head of the Elizabeth Glazer Paediatric Aids Foundation (EGPAF), Eluid Mwangi, noted that the rate at which HIV infection among children in Kenya was still high, with at least 4,000 children infected annually.
“The rate at which HIV spreads among children in Kenya is very alarming and leads to high infant mortality. We must now make concerted efforts to end AIDS,” Mwangi said.
He said they were coordinating a number of stakeholders to ensure the spread of AIDS among children ends by 2027. “We want to tell the world that this objective is achievable,” he said.
By Davis Langat
