Kenya: New Programme Targets Men in Paediatric HIV Prevention

By Henry Neondo

NAIROBI---Kenya has Thursday launched a US$ 3 million programme aimed at eliminating HIV transmission from mother to child by 2015, the year when the Millennium Development Goals come to an end. It will among others focus on ways of having men into ante-natal care.

Currently, an insignificant percentage of men accompany their wives for ante-natal care.

The annually phased programme simply as ‘Kata Shauri’ (Kiswahili word for ‘decide’),  will aim to reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child by 50 per cent before the end of this year, 2010.

“To promote the health and survival of mothers and babies, Kenya has adapted the WHO goal-oriented Antenatal Care (ANC) package, popularly known as focused ANC (FANC)” said Dr Sirengo Martin, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Programme Manager at the National AIDS/STD Control Porgamme (NASCOP).

This will involve having more couple testing together for HIV. The government plans to raise the number of couples who test for HIV to 30 per cent from the current 10 per cent. This compares badly with countries such as Rwanda where couple testing for HIV is said to be 70 per cent.

A 2008 study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and South Africa's University of KwaZulu Natal, found that male involvement in PMTCT was linked to greater uptake of HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, condom use, and support for infant feeding choices.

“The couple testing is key as HIV testing has been taken to be entry point for care and treatment in PMTCT progammes”,  said Dr Nickolas Muraguri, the head of NASCOP.

Dr Muraguri said currently, the HIV transmission from mother to child is between 10-15 per cent and the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation plans to halve this to between 5 per cent and less over the next few years.