There is a need to strengthen the youth friendly services in the health facilities with a view of confronting the triple threat of HIV, teenage pregnancies and gender-based violence (GBV) in Makueni County.
Making the public outcry, Makueni County Deputy Governor Lucy Mulili lamented that the new cases of HIV infections in the area was heavily impacting the youth aged between 15 to 24 years.
Consequently, Mulili said that the health workers need to teach the youth more about their reproductive health so that they can understand themselves hence prevent occurrence of new infections and incidences of GBV in the county.
“Makueni County has recorded 199 new cases of HIV infections from the last national estimates in the country. Out of these infections, 50 were among the youth aged between 15 and 24 years while 43 are children from zero to 14 years,” said Mulili during the Commemorating the World Aids Day at Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), Mbooni Campus on Monday in Mbooni east Sub County.
“This calls for action to strengthen youth-friendly health services to address the triple threat of HIV, teenage pregnancies and GBV. These figures highlight the current need to protect our daughters to empower them through community education,” she added.
The DG revealed that there are 18,264 people living with HIV aids in Makueni county saying this is a huge number of infections that is equal to a prevalence of 1.83 percent of the total population infected in Kenya.
While calling for concerted efforts to combat the epidemic that is on the increase, the DG said that we have 487 women living with HIV aids noting another 579 women are receiving Prevention to Mother-Child Transmission (PMTC) in the county.
Mulili further added that there are enough tools and health workers who will enhance the work to ensure no child is born with HIV in the area.
In this regard, she lauded the work being done by partners which the DG said had supplemented government efforts in tackling issues of HIV in the county.
Speaking at the same event, the County Executive Committee Member for Health Joyce Mutua challenged the youths in the area to go and get tested so as to curb spread of the epidemic that is on the rise.
Also, MS Mutua said the county government will ensure there is availability of drugs in the health facilities hence avert deaths emanating from the epidemic in the area.
By Patrick Nyakundi
