Will Kenya's media join fight against HIV/AIDS?

Submitted by Suleiman about 8 months ago

The National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) has challenged the media to take an active role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in order to reduce the national Aids prevalent rate to 2 percent by 2012.

NCAPD member John Wanyungu said that as part of the Government's Vision 2030 strategy, medium term plans (2008-2012) aim to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence by 5%. This stood at 7.1% in 2007.

He said the war against the scourge would not be won if the media fraternity remained aloof to complimenting efforts by other stakeholders on new HIV/AIDS infections.

He said the NCAPD had co-opted a media network of practicing journalists in Nairobi to help package and disseminate HIV/AIDS information with the prospect of replicating the same at the regional and district levels.

Wanyungu made the remarks during a dissemination workshop of the Kenya Aids Indicator Survey (KAIS) 2007 findings at a Kakamega hotel. The report shows the prevalent rate of HIV/AIDS in Western Province stood at 5.4% in 2007.

The number of persons living with the disease in the area stood at 115,000 but stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS agree that reducing or maintaining this level remained the greatest challenge.

The reports also revealed increasing numbers of new infections in the age range between 15 and 24 years old, a clear majority being girls. Men between 60 and 64 years old also featured highly.

The official said the media should be willing to demystify the stigma and myths on HIV/AIDS, particularly for the rural poor.

Peter Okwanyo, Regional Commissioner for Western Province, told the workshop the government was committed to the fight against poverty, a key factor said to catalyse the spread of the disease.

He said government officers were under instruction to ensure proper use of devolved funds arguing such monies are predestined to help mitigate the social and economic challenges at the grassroots and help reduce poverty.

He said the KAIS report was important in that it falls both in the phased implementation period of the first medium tern plan of the Vision 2030 and Millennium Development Goal number six, which relates to combating HIV/AIDS and Malaria .

Keywords: AIDS/HIV kenya Kenyan women Malaria media NCAPD

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