Education Ministry says 180,000 teenagers have HIV.
The Education Ministry Assistant Director Margaret Mwirigi has said that about 180,000 adolescents in schools are HIV positive, of these, 75,600 were not accessing ARVs.
The National Aids Control Council (NACC) official, Celestine Mugambi also said 14 teenagers die daily of HIV complications while 98 are infected, adding that only few adolescents are being tested for HIV as parents assumed that their children are not engaging in early sex and are not infected with HIV.
She further added that adolescents and youth account for 1.8 million pregnancies every year.
Ms Mugambi said that there are low testing rates among adolescents with only 46 females and 58 per cent males who are tested for HIV and there is still need for increased awareness of HIV as only 58 per cent of those affected know issues regarding HIV and how to prevent it.
However, she said investments and advocacy in the HIV response has increased as NACC has a two-year plan to reduce new student infections by 40 per cent. “We want to reduce AIDS related deaths by 20 per cent and reduce stigma and discrimination by 20 per cent,”
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