Report: Why more men die of AIDS than women :: Kenya

New HIV infections among children in the country have decreased by 40 percent over the past seven years, new data show.

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UNAIDS report men are most affected by AIDS-related diseases .

According to the report, while there were 13,000 infections in 2010 among children under 14, in 2017 the number was 8,000.

"Children are being left behind The good news is that 1.4 million new HIV infections have been prevented since 2010, but I am saddened by the fact that in 2017, 180,000 children were infected with HIV, far from the 2018 goal of eliminating new HIV infections in children, "said Unaids Executive Director, Michel Sidibe.

He added, "While the overall level of HIV treatment is high, there is a huge injustice against our children – only half of the under-15s living with HIV.

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The reduction in the number of children infected with the virus under 14 years of age has been attributed to increased testing and coverage of pregnant women on antiretroviral therapy.

For example, last year, the report states that 93% of the 940,000 women living with HIV in the sub-Saharan region have benefited from antiretroviral prophylaxis, which translates into an average rate of maternal-infant transmission less than 10%, the lowest in the world.

"This rate would be even lower if the number of pregnant women infected with HIV during pregnancy or postpartum was not diagnosed and not receiving antiretroviral drugs," notes Unaids in its July 20 report. 2018.

In the report, it was also revealed that despite the fact that more women are infected with the virus in the country, it is men who are dying of AIDS-related complications.

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According to data from the Unaids Data 2018 report published this month, there were 27,000 new infections in 2017 among women, compared to men aged 15 and over in the country .

But for deaths, there were 4,000 additional deaths among men aged 15 and over, compared to 10,000 deaths in 2017.

The report notes that reductions in mortality remain higher for women than for men, which is a notable feature in sub-Saharan Africa, where 56% of people living with HIV are women.

In 2017, about 300,000 [220 000–410 000] men in sub-Saharan Africa died of an AIDS-related illness, compared with 270,000 [190 000–390 000] women. This reflects higher treatment coverage for women, "reads the report.

He adds: "In 2017, about 75% of men living with HIV (aged 15 and over) in eastern and southern Africa knew their HIV status, compared with 83% of women living with HIV of the same age. . "

Unaids explains that in other parts of the world where the vast majority of epidemics are among men, the introduction of key populations such as homobaduals increases the burden of disease in the region.

"This higher burden, combined with lower treatment coverage among men, increases the gender disparity in AIDS-related mortality in these areas." Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, 69 percent of Deaths from AIDS-related illnesses affected both men and boys, "says the report.

According to Unaids, there are 1.5 million people in Kenya living with HIV, 110,000 of whom are living with HIV. children under 14 years of age, 860,000 are women over the age of 15 and 520,000 men are also over 15 years old.