Kenya Insights

Tag: WHO

  • STIs Including Syphilis, Gonorrhea Are On The Increase, Report Finds

    STIs Including Syphilis, Gonorrhea Are On The Increase, Report Finds

    Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as syphilis are on the rise in most regions of the world, UN health agency WHO said in a new report on Tuesday. 

    HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections continue as significant public health challenges globally and cause 2.5 million deaths each year:

    New syphilis cases among adults aged 15-49 increased by over one million in 2022, reaching eight million, and there were 230,000 syphilis-related deaths.

    The highest increases occurred in the Americas and Africa.

    Health targets at risk 

    The report warned that the increase in STIs, combined with insufficient decline in the reduction of new HIV and viral hepatitis infections globally, threatens health targets which are part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the rising incidence of syphilis raises major concerns.

    “Fortunately, there has been important progress on a number of other fronts including in accelerating access to critical health commodities including diagnostics and treatment,” he added.

    Multi-resistant gonorrhea 

    Syphilis is one of four curable STIs which together account for over one million infections daily. The others are gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries saw a surge in both adult and maternal syphilis – 1.1 million cases, and associated congenital syphilis, with 523 cases per 100,000 live births per year.

    New data also show an increase in multi-resistant gonorrhoea. WHO reported that as 2023, out of 87 countries where enhanced gonorrhoea antimicrobial resistance surveillance was conducted, nine reported elevated levels of resistance to the drug ceftriaxone, described as the “last line of treatment”.

    WHO is monitoring the situation and has updated its recommended treatment in efforts to reduce spread.

    Hepatitis and HIV 

    Roughly 1.2 million new hepatitis B cases and nearly one million new hepatitis C cases were reported in 2022.

    The estimated number of deaths from viral hepatitis rose from 1.1 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022 despite effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment tools.

    Meanwhile, new HIV infections only declined from 1.5 million in 2020 to 1.3 million in 2022.

    WHO said five key groups men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, transgender individuals, and individuals in prisons and other closed settings still experience significantly higher HIV prevalence rates than the general population.

    HIV-related deaths continue to be high, with 630,000 occurring in 2022, 13 per cent of which were among children 15 and younger.

    Silver lining 

    The report also highlights gains in expanding services for STIs, HIV and hepatitis.

    WHO has validated 19 countries for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and/or syphilis, reflecting investments in testing and treatment coverage for these diseases among pregnant women.

    The agency said Namibia is on track to become the first country to be evaluated for the triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.

  • Kenya Rolls Out First Malaria Vaccine In Homa Bay

    Kenya Rolls Out First Malaria Vaccine In Homa Bay

    From Today, the world’s first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya in a routine vaccination schedule, and more than 300,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine over the next three years according to the ministry of health.

    From WHO records, Malaria kills more than 400,000 people globally each year- mostly children. Global Health Correspondent Tulip Mazumdar reports have also backed up the reports.

    Malaria is a top killer of children under five throughout African, and the vaccine is critically important to its efforts to combat the disease because other measures such as mosquito nets have not proven adequate, the director-general of Kenya’s health ministry, Wekesa Masasabi, told media.

    “We still have an incidence of 27per cent (malaria infection) for children under five,” Masasabi said before Friday’s launch of the vaccine in the western county of Homa Bay.

    The Homa Bay program was the government’s first step toward creating awareness of the new vaccine, according to the director-general of Kenya’s health ministry, Wekesa Masasabi.

    African nations Ghana and Malawi launched their pilot programs of the vaccine earlier this year. Kenya plans to roll out the vaccine to eight of its 47 counties over the next two years, Masasabi said.

    Malaria can be eradicated within a generation, global health experts said in a major report last weekend that was commissioned by The Lancet medical journal. The Lancet report contradicted the conclusions last month of a malaria review by the World Health Organization, and its experts urged the WHO not to shy away from this goal of epic proportions.

  • South Africa starts giving oral PrEP to HIV-negative sex workers – Its time Kenya did the same

    South Africa starts giving oral PrEP to HIV-negative sex workers – Its time Kenya did the same

    Early March 2016, South Africa announced leading-edge interventions to address the high HIV infection rates among sex workers. The planned actions included; the provision of immediate antiretroviral treatment to all sex workers with HIV, and also to offer daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to HIV-negative sex workers so as to prevent them from acquiring the infection.

    While designing the plan, South Africans encompassed the multi-faceted lives of sex workers tackling not only their health needs but also psycho social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, reducing violence and economic empowerment.

    Kenya should be noting down the important lessons

    Although Kenya has been providing both emergency antiretrovirals and post-exposure prophylaxis (Pep) treatment, which suppress the HIV virus if taken within 72 hours of infection, sex workers are often left out this HIV response due to criminalisation, stigma, discrimination and Violence. But how can pre-exposure prophylaxis be offered to a group the is already existing in Kenya illegally? (Sex work is illegal in Kenya).

    1. Curbing stigma

    Implementing PrEP will mean that implementing groups such as Ministry of Health first take the service to the sex workers and afterwards encourage the sex workers to seek psycho-social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment and economic empowerment services offered countrywide.

    The combination of HIV-related stigma and stigma associated with sex work prevents sex workers from seeking HIV testing, and sex workers are also less likely to receive treatment.

    2. Strategic de-criminalisation of Sex work.

    There is strong evidence that criminalisation of sex work (Sex work is illegal in Kenya) encourages behaviour associated with a high risk of HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infection. Additionally, where sex work is criminalised, violence against sex workers is often not reported or monitored, and legal protection is often not offered to victims of such violence. Additionally, health-service providers often neglect their duty to provide care when attending to sex workers.

    HIV in Kenya

    The first case of HIV in Kenya was detected in 1984 and by 2013, Kenya had the joint fourth-largest HIV epidemic in the world in terms of the number of people living with HIV. Roughly 58,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in the same year.

    Multi-level Interventions were launched including the declaration by the then President that HIV was a National Disaster. Remarkable achievements came through but the fact is that HIV remains a major threat to public health not only in Kenya but globally. The latest available data and evidence shows a general decrease in the HIV infections. Additionally, too many people are becoming infected with HIV, too many people do not know that they have HIV, and too many people are dying from AIDS-related causes.

    In a report by UNAIDS/Lancet, no African country reports a prevalence of HIV infection of less than 6% among sex workers. In comparison to the rest of the world, the median prevalence of HIV infection in sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa alone is 20·5% as compared with the global median of 3·9%.

    Kenya ought to and home from South Africans.

    If this is actually implemented fully, the sex workers an important but neglected population that has a very high risk of HIV will be reached. In the case of South Africa, a total of 70000 sex workers will be reached in a three year period.

    Who has already applauded South Africas plan

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has already welcomed South Africas plan.

    “We applaud the South African Government for this bold plan and for offering early testing and treatment and PrEP to sex workers,” said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department.

    “This plan is an important step to scaling up treatment towards ‘treat all’ and to reducing HIV transmission effectively and rapidly.” added Dr Gottfried Hirnschall.

    South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive people in the world, with an estimated 6.3 million people living with HIV. Sex work is estimated to account for as much as 20% of new HIV infections in the country. A recent Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey showed extremely high HIV prevalence among sex workers, with as many as 70% of sex workers in Johannesburg living with HIV.

    In September 2015, WHO recommended that PrEP be offered as an additional prevention choice for people at substantial risk of HIV. South Africa is recognized as the first country in Africa to translate this recommendation into national policy.