The Kenyan government said on Monday the rate of HIV/AIDS infections had dropped to 5.1 percent in 2006 from 5.9 percent in 2005, but the disease still posed a major challenge in the country.
The state-run National AIDS Control Council (NACC) said the current estimate of urban prevalence is about 8.3 percent while rural prevalence is 4 percent of the country's nearly 35 million people.
"There is a general decline in the HIV/AIDS infections and prevalence. Another progress realized is the drop in new infections," NACC Director Alloys Orago told a news conference in Nairobi.
Prof. Orago said Kenya was one among the three countries in Africa where HIV and AIDS intervention was registering significant progress.
Due to the expanded Anti-retroviral Therapy, he said the country averted about 57,000 deaths in 2006.
Orago said awareness campaigns have succeeded in reducing Kenya's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate from 10 percent in the late 1990s, with condom use rising and a decline in the average number of sexual partners.
The annual number of adult AIDS deaths in Kenya reached a peak of about 120,000 in 2003 with officials saying the figure would have stayed at that level for the next three years were it not for the increasing number of people receiving anti-retroviral therapy( ART).
"Treatment has reduced the annual number of AIDS deaths to about 85,000 in 2006. In 2006, the number of deaths averted due to treatment is estimated at 57,000," Orago said.
He said infection incidences were estimated at 55,000 in 2006, a drop from 60,000 in 2005 and most of the new infections are occurring among young people.
NACC official said the east African nation has signed a credit of 80 million U.S. dollars with the World Bank to support Total War on AIDS (TOWA) project in order to strengthen further the national response to the pandemic.
TOWA is the first project that has brought together major development partners to pool resources to support the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan 2005/06- 2009/10 (KNASP).
The project will finance strategic and innovative programs as well as supporting the coordination and leadership capacity of NACC.
At least 1.3 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, 65 percent of whom are women between the ages of 19 and 45, according to NACC statistics.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced two years ago that public hospitals would no longer charge HIV/AIDS patients for life- prolonging anti-retroviral drugs in a new bid to fight the deadly disease.
Health experts say the east African nation Kenya has now matched the achievement of Uganda -- the country cited by UNAIDS as the most effective in the developing world in controlling the spread of AIDS.
The large number of Kenyans who have died from AIDS-related diseases has also contributed to the reduced prevalence of HIV infections, experts point out.
Kenya's achievement in generally slowing the epidemic is especially noteworthy in the context of Africa -- home to more than 60 percent of the 40 million people worldwide with HIV.
Source: Xinhua
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