HIV infections in Kenya hit youth

By Magdalene Mukami

Nairobi

Twenty-one percent of new HIV infections among adults in Kenya occur among women aged between 15 and 24 years old.

As the world commemorates the 27th World AIDS Day, Kenyan First Lady Margaret Kenyatta rang the alarm over HIV infections among the Kenyan youth.

"Available statistics are worrisome. For instance, it is unacceptable that 21 percent of new adult HIV infections should occur among young women between 15-24 years of age annually," Kenyatta told thousands who had gathered at a city stadium in Nairobi.

"Unless we control new HIV infections among this group, our aspirations of becoming a vibrant middle-income economy in the next few years is in jeopardy," she added.

Among the crowd in the stadium were several people infected with the virus.

"I am here to commemorate those of us who have died and celebrate those who are alive," said 24-year-old Lucy Wanjiku who contracted HIV at the age of 20. "We all know someone who has died because of AIDS, either because they were not educated on the disease or they just fell prey to peer pressure."

"For me it was a little of both, I believed that I had found the best of husbands but it was the same man who infected me," she said.

Wanjiku thanked the Kenyan government for promoting such events, in which the focus is put on raising awareness about AIDS and preventing the spread of the virus.

Joyce Njoki, a 22-year-old mother of one told Anadolu agency that stigma and discrimination against people, who are HIV positive or have AIDS, should end.

"Most of us are hurt by stigma and discrimination more than the disease hurts us," she said. "Our leaders should not only fight to end the spread of HIV but also fight to end stigma and discrimination. We are Kenyans, we are humans."

New data from the National Aids Control Council (NAAC) shows that more than half of the children aged between 10 and 15 years old in the country do not know that using condoms lowers the risks of HIV transmission.

The NAAC also indicated that, on average, there are 11,000 new cases of HIV infection among children, and 89,000 among adults, each year.

The NAAC adds that one out of every three people, newly infected with HIV, in Kenya is aged between 15 and 24 years old.