HIV prevalence in Kenya -report
A new report released on February 20th 2020 has revealed that Garissa County has no single case of HIV prevalence with Homa Bay leading at 19.6%.
The study that was conducted between June 2018 and February 2019 showed that Nyanza region had more cases of HIV than the rest of the country.
Kisumu stands at 17.5% while Siaya and Migori are at 15.3% and 13.0% respectively, according to the Kenya Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (KENPHIA) 2018.
The study found that the national HIV prevalence was found to be 4.9% which means that Nyanza region is way above the average.
North Eastern region reported lowest prevalence with the region showing less than 0.2%.
Nairobi is at 3.8%, Mombasa 5.6%, Nyeri 5.1%, Uasin Gishu 5.5%, Kajiado 4.6%, Turkana 6.8% and Kiambu 1.1%.
The report further notes that 1.3million (4.9%) adults are living with HIV while 139,000 (0.7%) children are living with the virus.
“HIV prevalence was twice as high among women at 6.6% (95% CI: 6.0%-7.1%), compared to men at 3.1% (95% CI: 2.7%-3.5%),” the study found.
Kenya has the fifth -largest number of persons living with HIV in the world, and HIV continues to be a leading cause of adult morbidity and mortality.
34,610 individuals participated in survey across the country: 27,897 were aged between 15-64 years and 6,713 were children aged between 0-14 years.
The Kenya Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (KENPHIA) survey has been launched by Health CAS Dr. Rashid Amani.