The number of pregnant women who are HIV positive is on the rise. From 7.3 percent HIV prevalence recorded in the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health survey (KDHS), the rate has increase to 9.6 percent, according to the 2007 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS).

People Living with HIV Aids (PLWHA) in Africa are increasingly calling for an effective public health agenda that recognizes the potential for orthodox treatments to complement African traditional medicine systems.  

Such herbal and synthetic drug combinations are psycho-socially inevitable in Africa, a continent in which over 90 percent of its population frequently seeks treatment with traditional medicine. 

The government is set to release today (29th July 2008) shocking results that indicate HIV prevalence rate is not as low as announced mid last year.

Based on a new study conducted last year, the findings show HIV prevalence to be higher than 5.1 percent announced last year and the 6.7 percent captured by 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

Senior doctors at Kenyatta National Hospital are spending more quality time with well-paying patients in their private clinics, where they make triple what they earn on government salary, a situation that has left poor patients coming through the public at a loss.

The 2007 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) released on Tuesday shows majority of the Kenyans have not gone for HIV status, with many perceiving themselves as having a very low risk of being infected. 

A whopping 83 percent of those who participated in the study did not know their HIV status. Of these 57 percent had not tested for HIV, while 26 percent of those who claimed to be HIV negative, tested positive on being diagnosed. 

As they exchanged pleasantries and sat next to each other during the launch of the 2007 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) yesterday, very few people knew all was not well.

The release of the findings of this study had started on a very acrimonious ground, with some government officials not willing to be part of a gathering that would release them.

Haga was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS seven years ago at the age of 63 years after becoming bed ridden with opportunistic infections.  Due to her age both her family and doctors had not suspected that she could be HIV positive and it only occurred to them that she could have contracted HIV when she developed full blown symptoms. Upon diagnosis the doctors advised her family to take her home as a continuous hospital stay would end up being too costly. 

The Kenya Aids Vaccine that was using a similar concept as the failed Merck and Company vaccine ha s finally been suspended permanently, leaving the scientists involved to work on new strategy of moving forward.

Although the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative (KAVI) researchers had registered major successes in the phase one trial of their vaccine, they say they cannot proceed to Phase II using a concept that might not work.

Lack of necessary capacity in African countries to convert relevant new scientific knowledge into practices that could improve the people’s welfare and the general development is to blame for the increased number of poor people in the continent.

“The weak institutional linkages that often lead to undue and ill thought out over reliance on international donor funding is partly to blame for the miseries in most African countries,” Dr. Rebecca Hanlin, Development and policy expert from the Open University, Britain says.

Dr. Hanlin observes that Africa can develop faster once the governments starts allocating reasonable funds to science and innovation development adding that annual budgetary under funding by the African governments only helps drag the continent backward.

Worried by the soaring cases of people presenting to health facilities with diseases that cause excruciating pain such cancers and HIV/AIDS, medical practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa now want palliative care given the prominence it deserves.

They are pushing for a comprehensive policy on Palliative Care to reduce the disease burden, particularly on the poor.