Doctors have sounded an alert over the high number of new HIV infections among married couples saying the trend was likely to constrain treatment.The trend, in which between 55,000 to 100,000 new HIV infections were
reported on an annual basis, mostly among married couples, posed a
serious challenge to the provision of anti-retroviral drugs, Dr
Nicholas Muraguri, the director of the National Aids and Sexually
Transmitted Diseases Programme (Nascop), said on Tuesday. About 1.3
million HIV-infected people are enrolled in the ARV programme.
Promoting fidelity
In a bid to address the high level of new HIV infections, the Public
Health ministry has launched a campaign dubbed Concurrence campaign,
which aims at promoting fidelity in marriages and encouraging couples
to know their HIV status, said Dr Muraguri.
The latest Kenya Aids Indicator Survey shows that 350,000 people live
with partners who are HIV positive and they don't know, and three out
of five infected Kenyans are female.
Speaking during the opening of the annual provincial and district Aids
coordinators meeting at Kenyatta International Conference Centre in
Nairobi, Dr Muraguri blamed laxity for fuelling the spread of HIV and
Aids among married couples.
Most couples and partners tend to relax and fail to use condoms after
entering into a new sexual relationship…This ends up fuelling the
spread of the disease since a majority of them do not know the HIV
status of their partners, he said.
Dr Muraguri said men aged 55 years and above were more vulnerable to
HIV infection for failing to use condoms while the disease prevalence
appears to be on the rise among women and men living in rural areas
compared to their urban counterparts.