Kenya Should Take ‘Bold Steps’ To Fight HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Opinion Piece Says
Kenya needs to "undertake bold steps" to address its HIV/AIDS epidemic, but some of its actions "may not win the approval" of the country's bilateral partners, Charles Ndung'u, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, writes in a Daily Nation opinion piece. Although Kenya has decreased its HIV prevalence rate by about 50% since the 1990s, the rate is falling in "large part because the AIDS death exceeds the rate of new infections," Ndung'u writes. An estimated 150,000 people die of AIDS-related causes annually in Kenya, which "reflects our nation's inability to act quickly enough to provide our people with the information and services they need to avoid infection in the first place," as well as to provide antiretroviral drugs and related care to HIV-positive people, Ndung'u says. Therefore, Kenya needs to "customize prevention interventions and ensure they are suitable for our people," including efforts targeting women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by the epidemic, he writes. In addition, Kenya needs "to support [the] production and importation of generic drugs, which may not please some members of the World Trade Organization," Ndung'u says, concluding, "We need to expand funding for the public health system, and resist pressure from donors to cut back on social services" (Ndung'u, Daily Nation, 3/31).
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