22 Kenyan Teenagers Get Infected With HIV/AIDS Daily

Probably you have heard something like HIV/AIDS is just like any other “disease” that people should stop being scared of but I hold a different view. HIV/AIDS has no cure and is still a menace across the country.

Sadly, the most affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya at the moment are teenagers or adolescents with young girls leading the way. Majority of the adolescents infected have been found to have contracted the disease through unprotected sex.

A report released by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday has revealed that 22 adolescents are getting infected with HIV/AIDS daily in Kenya. Majority of those infected are between the age of 12 and 16.

According to the report, a total of 6 teenagers are dying daily in Kenya from HIV/AIDS further diminishing efforts by various agencies to fight new infections of the disease.

Some of the teenagers are born with the disease through transmission from their mothers during birth. The government is partly to blame for the mother-to-child transmission for failing to avail the required medicine sometimes.

In 2018, 430,825 adolescents were pregnant (these are those who sought services from hospitals. Most cases remain unreported.) This means 1 out of 10 girls in Kenya was pregnant in 2018.

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Sadly, out of 430,825 adolescents who were pregnant in 2018, a total of 430,000 were between the ages of 10 to 19 years. They all delivered successfully.

During the same period of 2018, 5,286 adolescent mothers and 3,242 newborn babies were found to be HIV positive but missed the antiretroviral medication.

Counties that reported the highest cases of teenage pregnancies, and therefore, with high cases of infections are Tana River, Siaya, Busia, Meru, Narok, and Kisii.

The young in this country are the future. The government still has a long way to go in ensuring that cases of new HIV/AIDS infection among our teenagers are reduced and eliminated.

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