Impact of COVID-19 on HIV/AIDS Programming in Kenya:
Impact of COVID-19 on HIV/AIDS Programming in Kenya:
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Authors
Muhula, Samuel
Ngugi, Dr. Catherine
Opanga, Yvonne
Ngunu, Dr. Caroline
Carter, Dr. Jane
Oramisi, Dr. Violet
Marita, Enock
Memiah, Dr. Peter
Osur, Prof. Joachim
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Abstract
Description
Kenya has witnessed tremendous progress over the last decade in reducing the annual number of new HIV infection and AIDS-related deaths, resulting in improved quality of life for PLHIV and reduced risk of infection
• 79.5% of PLHIV in the country are aware of their HIV status; 96% are on life saving treatment and 90.6% of those on life saving treatment had achieved viral load suppression (KEPHIA, 2018)
• In addition, Kenya has been a huge prevention success story in the region.
• One of the first to approve the use of PrEP and has led the way in providing
prevention measures such as VMMC
• As a result, new infections have fallen drastically in recent years
On 13th March, Kenya reported the first case of COVID-19
• As of Oct 29th 2020, there were 51,851 cases, 934 (2%) deaths and 35,258 (68%)
recoveries in the Country
• The world had recorded about 44.7M COVID-19 cases, 1,179,232 (3%) deaths and
32M (73%) recoveries as of Oct 29th 2020
• To date, there is limited data on exact effect of COVID-19 coinfection on PLHIVs
• Studies have shown that people with pre-existing conditions who contract COVID-19 are at higher risk of disease progression including death, though not much is known about the relationship between COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS
• It is also not clear whether Kenya had recorded spikes in Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs) before the outbreak was confirmed in March 2020.