Concerns are heightening regarding HIV treatments losing their punch in the country as the deadly virus becomes more resistant.<\/p>\n
Health experts are now worried that if the trend of resistance to Anti-Retroviral treatment among populations with HIV continues, saving and enhancing the quality of lives of millions of Kenyans with the virus could become impossible.<\/p>\n
This comes as a new study by M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (Doctors without Borders), an international humanitarian NGO suggested that 50 per cent of Aids inpatients in Homa Bay District Hospital are failing their HIV treatment. Among 690 patients (aged 13 and above) admitted between December 2014 and March 2015, half of patients with HIV failed their HIV treatment.<\/p>\n
Persons with HIV accounted for more than a third of admissions and 55 per cent of deaths in the facility. See also: Families cry for jab as Hepatitis B claims loved ones The Ministry of Health estimates that at least ten per cent of Kenyans could be having drug-resistant strains of the virus, although the numbers are thought to be far higher.<\/p>\n
According to Kenya Medical Association National Chairperson, Dr Elly Nyaim, incidences of resistance to HIV treatments may worsen in the near future if not addressed urgently.<\/p>\n
He said resistance to HIV treatment is caused by not adhering to recommended doses due to lack of awareness of the dangers of doing so. He also indicated that some Kenyans with HIV fail to take the drugs regularly due to stigma associated with the disease, while others may not respond to available treatment if they are infected with HIV virus that is already resistant to treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot taking medication as recommended allows the virus to multiply, which increases the risk that it could mutate and produce drug-resistant HIV. We need to enhance awareness and action to tackle this issue before it is too late,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
860,000 Kenyans with HIV receive free anti-retro viral treatment out of the one million people who have been confirmed to have the condition. However, it is estimated that a total of 1.6 million Kenyans have HIV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Concerns are heightening regarding HIV treatments losing their punch in the country as the deadly virus becomes more resistant. Health experts are now worried that if the trend of resistance to Anti-Retroviral treatment among populations with HIV continues, saving and enhancing the quality of lives of millions of Kenyans with the virus could become impossible. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}