File photo shows residents marching along the streets in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, to mark the World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, 2011. (Xinhua/Daniel Namale)
NAIROBI, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya targets to reduce new HIV infections among adults by 75 percent and cut mother-to-child transmission to 5 percent by next year, the National Aids Control Council (NACC) said in a report released on Friday.
The east African nation recorded 52,800 new HIV infections last year, of which 8,000 were of children below 14 years.
Some 1.49 million people are living with HIV in the country, a majority of them women while 713,500 are on anti-retroviral treatment and the nation recorded 28,200 deaths last year.
To achieve the drastic cut in HIV infections among adults and reduce mother-to-child transmission from 14 percent to 5 percent, Kenya has lined up a number of strategies, according to the NACC report dubbed Kenya Aids Response Progress 2018.
The east African nation has prioritized to further increase domestic funding to HIV programming to plug the gap created by the decline in donor cash.
Between 2014/15 and 2017/18, HIV programming expenditures increased from 59.37 billion shillings (582 million U.S. dollars) to 946 million dollars.
"Kenya targets to increase domestic financing for the HIV response to 50 percent," says the report.
Voluntary male circumcision, one of the foremost methods Kenya is using to fight HIV, surpassed its target in 2017 by reaching out to 239,001. Some 1.5 million males have been circumcised since 2013 when the programme was started.
Angeline Yiamiton Siparo, NACC's chairperson, said with results from the implementation of the Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework pointing towards great progress, Kenya is on track in fighting the disease.
