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HEALTH: Kenya's 1.2m AIDS Orphans at the Centre of the 2002 Election Agenda
By Katy Salmon
NAIROBI, Nov 27 (IPS) - The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has
launched a nation-wide television, radio and poster campaign urging Kenya's
politicians to put the issue of Kenya's 1.2 million AIDS orphans at the
centre of the 2002 election agenda.
The number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to double by the end
of the decade.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has devastated Kenya. Today, almost every Kenyan is
either looking after an AIDS orphan or knows someone who is.
Unicef describes this as ‘'a national crisis'' and is urging politicians
to formulate policies to deal with it.
‘'There is no choice, only an imperative. Parliamentary candidates must
address this issue as a matter of urgency and dedicate official time to
their plight once they are elected,'' says Unicef Kenya representative
Nicholas Alipui.
The stigma surround HIV/AIDS only worsens the suffering of these
children, many of whom end up begging and sleeping rough on city streets.
Their future is bleak - traumatised by their parents' deaths, destitute,
uneducated and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
‘'If crime and violence become their survival strategies this will have
serious implications for Kenyan lives and livelihoods,'' says Alipui.
Unicef argues that it is up to Kenya's political leaders to bring these
marginalised children back into society.
‘'We need official support to stand behind these children and break that
stigma which is one of the things that is causing psychological damage to
these children,'' says Alipui.
‘'We need to find a way of taking those that are on drugs, sniffing glue,
that you see on the streets, off the streets, de-intoxicate them
rehabilitate them and make them go to school. This requires a social
movement that must be led by politicians who claim that they want to lead
the nation,'' he urges.
‘'Is this part of your political agenda? And if so are you willing to
rise to the occasion and do the things that matter for these children?'' he
asks.
Unicef's ‘Call to Action' brochure is being distributed to all political
candidates, emphasising the need for free education for AIDS orphans and
funding to support those caring for them. The ‘Call to Action' also calls
for legislation outlawing discrimination and exploitation of orphans, in
particular losing their family property, which is a common problem.
Unicef's campaign is further evidence that attention is shifting from
preventative education to ensuring that those infected with, and affected
by, the disease are taken care of. Kenya's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has
stabilised, falling from 13 to 12 percent this year.
The problem of AIDS orphans is emerging as the biggest social crisis
facing East Africa.
Neighbouring Uganda has been hailed as a role-model in Africa for its
success in reducing its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate from 30 to 5 percent. But
Uganda has even more AIDS orphans - totalling almost 2 million.
The most vulnerable children are those who are themselves infected with
HIV/AIDS, usually through parent-to-child-transmission.
All three East African countries have been running pilot schemes giving
free doses of the drug Nevirapine to HIV-positive women and their new born
babies. This cuts the parent-to-child transmission rate by almost half.
Kenya and Uganda are now extending these schemes nation-wide.
Not only do they lessen the number of children infected with HIV/AIDS, such
pre- and post-natal treatment is also a way of diagnosing HIV infected women
relatively early in their illness.
‘'It's an opportunity to build-in care to prevent infections, to conserve
their weight and to help them address the issues they need to address as HIV
infected individuals,'' says Ruth Nduati, an HIV/AIDS researcher in Nairobi.
Nduati would also like these HIV-positive mothers to receive
anti-retroviral drugs and long-term care so that they can live long enough
to raise their children.
‘'This package is something that is coming on board and needs to be
embraced. It should be put on the ground over the next year,'' she predicts.
Greater access to anti-retroviral drugs would save thousands of parents
from an early grave.
The price of anti-retrovirals has fallen from 1000 U.S. dollars to 40
U.S. dollars a month over the last three years.
Kenya also has passed legislation allowing it to import cheaper, generic
versions of the drugs. But these drugs are not yet on the market because the
Ministry of Health has not registered them.
‘'We are now seeing the queuing up of reputable molecules from different
drug companies at the registration board with unexplained and very
inexcusable delays,'' says Chris Ouma of Action Aid.
‘'If we are serious about trying to do something about this problem, one
of the biggest priorities would be to register different drugs in order to
bring about competition and bring the prices down,'' he says.
Ouma alleges that corruption at Kenya's Ministry of Health could be to
blame. ‘'The whole system for drug registration is skewed in such a way that
there can be artificial blocks that induce money to exchange hands,'' he
says.
‘'We have no proof but we know that different companies with the same
kind of application can have drugs processed and registered in three weeks.
Others have been queuing for two years and there is hardly any difference
within the application,'' he says.
Only 6,000 of Kenya's two and a half million HIV-positive people are
currently taking anti-retroviral drugs.
A few private sector companies, like Coca Cola and Standard Chartered
Bank, have started providing free medical care and anti-retroviral drugs to
their HIV-positive employees. Activists are pushing for other companies to
follow suit. (END/2002)
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