Hiv Aids

DISCUSS THE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC IN KENYA

Introduction
The magnitude and impact of HIV/AIDS in Kenya is not only a major public health problem and development challenge but also it is creating a negative socio-economic impact. The realization that the country is losing close to 700 of its people daily made the government to declare HIV/AIDS a national disaster.
History of Aids in Kenya
Between 1983 and 1985, 26 cases of AIDS were reported in Kenya.   6 commercial sex workers were the first group to be reported. A study from 1985 reported an HIV prevalence of 59% amongst a group of sex workers from Nairobi. Towards the end of 1986, there was an average of 4 new Aids cases being reported to World Health Organization (WHO) each month. This totaled to 286 cases by the beginning of 1987, 38 of which had been fatal.
By 1987, between 1 and 2% of adults in Nairobi were believed to have been infected with the virus.
Prevalence hit its peak in the year 2000 with 13.4% reducing to 6.9% by 2006. However this decrease in prevalence comes at a high cost where death the death rates have increased to unprecedented levels. Available data from the National Aids Control Council (NACC) indicates that more than 1.4 million people are living with AIDS and close to 200,000 occur every year. The majority of infected are young people between 15 - 49 years.
Notably, there are high percentages of infections that occur within the family. It is estimated that 7.5% of couples are discordant for HIV (One of the partners is positive).
Socio-economically the epidemic causes a loss of about 200 million shillings daily.
Myths and misconceptions
Differences in cultural and religious backgrounds have led to the rise of several theories, myths and misconceptions about the cause, treatment and spread of HIV. Some of these include:
1. HIV/AIDS is a punishment from God.
This is mostly in religious sects. Some tend to go for prayer alone and ignore going for treatment in hospitals.  

2. You...