By Fredrick Odiero
A researcher has decried the low uptake of Anti-Retroviral Therapies (ART) and the high rate of HIV infections among youths and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Elizabeth Irungu, a researcher at the John Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO), said some 82 per cent of youths who are on ARTs default for various reasons.
She was speaking in Kisumu during a conference titled Reducing HIV in Adolescents and Youth (RHAY) and whose theme was “Nothing for us without Us”.
Dr. Irungu said the youths in the Sub-Saharan region also do not have adequate information on their sexuality and suffer from stigma amidst a host of cultural issues.
She said that out of the youths affected, a huge number are girls and wondered why that is so.
Dr. Irungu said that youths in Sub-Saharan Africa account for 30 per cent of new HIV infections, yet they comprise only 10 per cent of the total population in those regions.
Another researcher from Kenya Medical Research Institute Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi said interventions like long-acting injectable antiretrovirals and the vaginal ring will come in handy as one of the ways and means of combating HIV.
Dr Bukusi, however, said that it will take time for Cabotegravir and Rilpivirine HIV-1, which are long-acting injectables when combined, to be introduced in Sub-Saharan regions.
She said that issues like costs and mode of storage and application must be considered first.
