Kenya says HIV/AIDS rate drops to 5.9 percent

The Kenyan governmment said Tuesday the rate of HIV/AIDS infections had dropped to 5.9 percent, but conceded the disease still posed a major challenge in the country.

The state-run National Aids Control Council (NACC) said the rate fell from 6.1 percent in 2004 to 5.9 percent of the country's nearly 35 million people.

"Of notable significance is the decline in new infections from 85,000 in 2004 to 60,000 in 2005 as well as the drop in HIV prevalence from 6.1 percent to 5.9 percent in the same period," said NACC chairwoman Miriam Were.

She said a shift in sexual habits and the more widespread use of condoms had played a large part in curbing infections, whose prevalence Kenya aims to slash to a rate of 5.5 percent by 2010.

The UN's frontline agency for AIDS, which in 2004 cautioned the country against relying on dubious statistics to assess its performance in combating the disease, commended the Kenyan authorities' efforts.

"Kenya has made remarkable improvement in bringing down the prevalence rate. UNAIDS is pleased with these efforts," said UNAIDS co-coordinator Dr Erasmus Morah.

The rate of prevalence stood at 10 percent in the late 1990s.

At least 1.3 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, 65 percent of whom are women between the ages of 19 and 45, according to NACC statistics.

Last year, Kibaki announced that public hospitals would no longer charge HIV/AIDS patients for life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs in a new bid to fight the deadly disease.

But public health experts have cautioned against the excitement caused by antiretrovirals (ARVs).

"Some people may begin to think a cure has been found, so we need to keep reminding everybody that ARVs are not a cure. The only thing they do is reduce the burden of the virus so that you can lead your life normally," health expert William Muraah told AFP.

Speaking at a teachers' assembly Tuesday, Kibaki lamented what he said was a surge in AIDS infections in schools.

"The current trends of indiscipline, drug and substance abuse, and HIV infection among teachers and students in our schools are worrying," said the president, who called for tough action to buck this phenomenon.

Since 1984, at least 1.5 million people are said to have died from AIDS in Kenya, according to health ministry estimates.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for almost two-thirds of all people infected with HIV and 72 percent of global AIDS deaths, according to UNAIDS.

As of June last year, around one million Africans were receiving antiretroviral drugs which roll back the AIDS virus, a tenfold increase since December 2003.

But this was still less than a quarter of the estimated 4.6 million people in need of the drugs on the continent.