KENYA-POPULATION: Heading Into an AIDS Storm

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Sep 29 1997 (IPS) - Widespread concern here that Kenya is heading towards an AIDS storm has prompted its government to formulate a long-term strategy to deal with a scourge that has already killed nearly a quarter of a million young Kenyans.

Figures released last week by the Ministry of Health here show that the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDs) has claimed the lives of around 230,000 Kenyans aged between 15 and 39 years since 1984 and will have killed about a million by the year 2000.

The Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, has so far infected up to 1.3 million Kenyans, Assistant Health Minister Basil Criticos said recently in parliament when he tabled a bill aimed at tackling the disease — the government’s first official acknowledgement of the magnitude of the scourge. “Some do not even know thae