No single HIV case in Garissa County as Homa Bay leads with 20% prevalence

A new report has revealed that Garissa County has no single case of HIV prevalence, while Homa Bay leading the pack at 19.6%.

The study that was conducted between June 2018 and February 2019 showed that Nyanza region had more cases of HIV than the rest of the country.

Kisumu stands at 17.5% while Siaya and Migori are at 15.3% and 13.0% respectively, according to the Kenya Population-based HIV Impact Assessment 2018.

The study found that the national HIV prevalence was found to be 4.9% which means that Nyanza region is way above the average.

North Eastern region reported lowest prevalence with the region showing less than 0.2%.

Nairobi is at 3.8%, Mombasa 5.6%, Nyeri 5.1%, Uasin Gishu 5.5%, Kajiado 4.6%, Turkana 6.8% and Kiambu 1.1%

The report further notes that 1.3million (4.9%) adults are living with HIV while 139,000 (0.7%) children are living with the virus.

“HIV prevalence was twice as high among women at 6.6% (95% CI: 6.0%-7.1%), compared to men at 3.1% (95% CI: 2.7%-3.5%),” the study found.

Kenya has the fifth-largest number of persons living with HIV in the world, and HIV continues to be a leading cause of adult morbidity and mortality.

34,610 individuals participated in survey across the country: 27,897 were aged between 15-64 years and 6,713 were children aged between 0-14 years.