NMS plans to wipe out HIV in Nairobi by 2030

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) has said it is on course to have a Nairobi free of HIV infections, stigma and AIDS-related deaths by 2030.

Currently, Nairobi has the highest burden of people living with HIV in Kenya with an estimated 167,446 residents living with the virus, 12,779 of them being children under 14 years, according to Kenya HIV Estimates Report, 2020.

However, NMS Health Services Director Ouma Oluga said the city has over the last two decades consistenly recorded decreasing HIV prevalence rates from 24.6 percent in 1995 to 5.2 percent at the end of 2020.

He said only 4,446 new infections occurred in the city in 2020 with adolescents and young people contributing only 1,475 of all new infections.

The reduced numbers, he explained, is in line with the county's commitment to achieving the 95-95-95 (reducing new infections, eliminating stigma and AIDS-related deaths) targets by the year 2022 and to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

"Notably, in the last two decades Nairobi County has consistently recorded decreasing HIV prevalence rates from 24.6percent in 1995, to 14.4 percent in 2001, to 8 percent in 2013, 6.1 percent in 2017 and down to 5.2 percent by the end of 2020," said Dr Oluga.

This despite Nairobi facing factors that put its residents at increased risk of contracting HIV particularly among key populations (KPs) and adolescents and young people (AYP) particularly girls.

The factors include rapid urbanisation, high levels of poverty in ever-growing informal settlements, and lingering stigma and discrimination leading to constraints in accessing health services by these populations.

Two weeks ago, the NMS Health Directorate was recognised by the Fast Track Cities Institute (FTCI) and UNAIDS with a ‘Circle of Excellence Award’ for measures put in in the HIV/AIDS fight.

The county received the accolade for its efforts in successfully closing the gaps between HIV diagnoses and treatment initiation with antiretroviral therapy, as well as creating enabling environments for viral suppression.

In the process, Nairobi became the first African city to be feted with the prestigious award.

Dr Oluga said as a capital city, Nairobi hosts highly mobile populations with in-and-out population flows due to internal migration leaving it highly exposed.

However, through enhanced community activities targeting young people combined with adolescent-friendly health facility-based approaches has led to reduced infections in the young population.

Other interventions have included community condom distribution and promotion, and integrated sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, mobilisation of adolescents and young people through existing youth networks for increased services uptake by the youth champions and referrals for services using existing structures of community strategy and using referral tools to promote meaningful youth engagement.

This is in addition to in- and out-of-school participatory age-appropriate comprehensive education programmes to increase demand and provide education and increased capacity building initiatives for young people by ddressing the knowledge gap on contraceptives and other HIV-related issues.