By KPC Reporter
Adolescents in Nyamira County face triple health threats according to data in the latest Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic report.
The three threats are: new infections, pregnancies and sexual/ Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Also Read
This is according to the 2023 report.
The report shows that adolescents aged between 10 and 19 accounted for 27% of new infections that occurred last year.
And, as Nyamira marks the World AIDS Day at Ekerenyo on December 1st, the County is ranked number 21 in the HIV epidemic in the country.
It is estimated that 21,759 people in the County live with HIV.
Of those, an estimated 979 are children aged between zero and 14 years.
On average, there’s is a 3.5% HIV-AIDs preference rate in the County.
Women are more vulnerable to the virus than men.
The report shows that of the overall preference rate, women’s was at 4.8% while men’s stood at 2.2%.
There were 182 new infections, which included 54 men, 90 women and 38 children.
The County recorded 283 HIV related deaths, 255 of them being adults.
The data shows that young people aged between 15 and 24 contributed half of the new infections in the County.
Even so, the HIV rate has been reducing in the past decade.
The report shows that the rate declined from 20.4% in 2013 to 12.2% in 2023.
Further, the report shows that of the 21,759 people living with the virus, 16,614 were in care, translating to a 24% identification gap. 16, 613 were on Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART), translating to a 24% treatment gap.
Also, 15,923 of the infected were virally suppressed, causing a 27% suppression gap.
This year’s World AIDs Day theme is, “promoting the health and well-being of men and boys.”
The celebration comes in between the 16 days of actvisim against GBV, which is often construed to mean violence against women.
