Kenya National AIDS Conference: Health GAP and NEPHAK criticise the Kenyan governement inefficiency

KENYA AND DONORS FAILING TO MEET CRUCIAL AIDS FUNDING PROMISES

CSO March Into Opening Ceremonies of Kenya National AIDS Conference

Demand Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and President Obama Keep Their Word

WEDNESDAY 18 May, 2011 • 8:00 AM • Gather at Kenya School of Accountancy, march up Thika Road to National Conference at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies

18 MAY 2011, Nairobi: Civil society groups will march with banners and placards Wednesday to the first biennial Kenya HIV Conference. They will demand that Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta and President Barack Obama keep their promises to fund the fight against HIV. Protesters will report on key commitments that are not being kept, including Uhuru’s pledge for a 10% annual increase in Kenya’s health and HIV budgets, and a pledge by US President Barack Obama to provide US$50 billion to global HIV by 2013.

 “New science has shown that treatment is the best prevention. We can virtually eliminate new HIV infections by getting HIV drugs to everyone in need,” said Nelson Otwoma, the National Coordinator of NEPHAK, Kenya’s largest network of people with HIV. “But ending AIDS requires Uhuru Kenyatta and Barack Obama to keep their word and fund the fight—they must not betray people living with HIV,” he said,

Recent studies have shown that providing antiretroviral therapy to people leads to a more than 96% reduction in HIV transmission and that earlier initiation leads to less illness and death when started earlier in the disease. Already Kenya has adopted the new World Health Organization guidelines to initiate treatment at CD4 350, but new studies show further improvements in health outcomes when treatment is initiated at CD4 500.

 “These studies that prove treatment is prevention have real financial implications: it is more expensive not to treat the people,” reports Otwoma. “This is it – now is the moment when our leaders can choose to end AIDS by treating everyone who needs it, or choose to shrink budgets and lead us down a path of a long war of attrition where we are all the casualties,” he concludes.

“Now that we know that treatment is one of the most powerful prevention tools, it is more urgent than ever for Uhuru and Obama to keep their funding promises. There is light at the end of the tunnel for the first time--leaders must fulfill commitments to achieve Universal Access to treatment,” said Allan Maleche, director of Kenya Ethical and Legal Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN). “The governments of Kenya and the United States must not be so short-sighted that they miss the opportunity bring HIV to an end.”

The Kenya HIV conference happens just before the United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV in June. This UN meeting will include a wide representation of leaders from many countries and will create the global goals and targets for HIV in the coming years. Activists believe Kenya can use the national HIV conference as a way to set the tone for the upcoming UN meeting. “We need bold targets, like getting 15 billion people on HIV treatment globally by 2015 and harness the power of treatment as prevention to bring the epidemic to a halt,” said MSF’s Jennifer Cohn, MD. “Kenya needs to show to the UN and the world that countries with heavy HIV burdens are ready to work with donors to take on the challenge of dramatically increasing numbers on treatment.”

Globally there are 6 million people with HIV on treatment, but nearly 10 million more are waiting in need of medicine. In Kenya, approximately 250,000 are in immediate clinical need of treatment, but are not yet on ART. “Kenya and donor governments must do a lot more,” says NEPHAK’s Arnold Otieno “Uhuru needs to keep his signed pledge to increase Kenya’s own HIV and health budgets by at least 10% per year, and adopt innovative approaches like setting aside 1% of national revenue for an HIV trust fund and expanding social health insurance.”

“Donor shortfalls are also a problem,” continues Otieno. “Kenya’s KNASP III goals cannot be met if Obama flat lines or even decreases PEPFAR funding, and the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria faces a $11.3 billion deficit. President Obama must keep his pledge for $50 billion for global AIDS.” Otieno was one of the civil society representatives who drafted Kenya’s recent successful application to the Global Fund for US$340 million for HIV.