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Kenya Launches New Initiative to Bring Down AIDS Infection Prevalence

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Kenya launches new initiative to bring down AIDS infection prevalence

NAIROBI, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said Monday that his government had launched a new initiative aimed at further reducing the HIV/AIDS prevalence to below 5.5 percent by the year 2009.

"To further intensify the war against HIV/AIDS, my government has launched a new initiative known as Total War Against HIV/AIDS. The objective is to further reduce the HIV/AIDS prevalence to below 5.5 percent by the year 2009," Kibaki told thousands of Kenyans during the celebrations to mark the 42nd anniversary of the country's independence from Britain.

"As part of this initiative, we will continue to increase the number of people on anti-retroviral therapy and also provide socio- economic safety nets for those infected and affected. I urge all Kenyans to observe safe behavior in order to keep the disease at bay," he said at the national stadium in central Nairobi.

Kibaki pointed out that the reduction of the level of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the east African nation is attributed to change of behavior including abstention and observance of protective measures, adding that this year the prevalence rate dropped to 6.1 percent.

The president said Kenyans have an obligation, as a nation, to care for the 6 percent who are infected while at the same time ensuring that the remaining 94 percent do not get infected.

Noting that HIV/AIDS continues to have a devastating impact on all sectors of the society despite the progress made, President Kibaki expressed the need to step up measures to overcome the enduring obstacles to development created by the epidemic.

He said his government was paying special attention to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, which continue to have a devastating impact in all sectors of Kenyan society.

"We have also stepped up measures to combat the spread of TB and malaria in the country. We have strengthened the implementation of malaria control programs, while treatment for TB is being given free of charge in all government healthcare facilities," the Kenyan leader said.

The east African nation currently has 54,000 HIV/AIDS patients under treatment up from less than 2,000 people who were receiving the treatment in 2002.

The government's target is to have 95,000 people on anti- retroviral therapy by the end of this year and 140,000 people by the end of 2006.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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