The National AIDS Control Council (NACC) has outlined the country’s preparedness in organizing the International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA).
The CEO of the National Aids control council, Ruth Masha said Kenya is committed and it has a mature response to the HIV epidemic.
“We as a country of course remain committed and one of the things that Kenya boasts is that we have a mature response to the HIV epidemic which has been there for more than four decades,” said Masha.
Speaking in Nairobi on Monday, Masha added that Kenya has been on the continental health diplomacy and is therefore prepared to host International Conference Aids and STIs in Africa (ICASA).
“So indeed as a country, we have been on the continental health diplomacy for a long time so we do know that we are prepared and ready to host the conference,” said Masha.
The Director of ICASA Mr Luc Armand stated the conference is a biannual event where more than five countries bid to host it
“As ICASA, we do organize it every two years and so far we have more than five countries that bid to host ICASA and out of the five countries we have a database of societies in Africa comprising more than five thousand people across the globe,” Armand noted.
He further stated that Kenya and Zimbabwe have been selected to go through an assessment visit to see if the countries have the facilities and whether the governments are committed to host people across the globe.
“Kenya and Zimbabwe have been preselected to go through what we call assessment visits to see if the country has the facilities and if the government is committed and ready to host a minimum of 10,000 to 15,000 people across the globe,” said Armand.
The deputy treasurer of Society for AIDS Africa (SAA) Florence Wamala said that their aim is to achieve an international overview of how African countries take care of SAA.
By Theresia Kiio and Ella Elizabeth
