Concern over sustaining AIDS reduction momentum

Key international donors have acknowledged Kenya's progress in tackling HIV/AIDS, but expressed concern about the sustained effort required to consolidate these achievements. The HIV prevalence rate in the east African country dropped from 13.6 percent in 1997 to seven percent last year. At a joint press conference on Monday in the capital, Nairobi, UNAIDS, the World Bank, Norway and the UK said although Kenya's reduced AIDS rate presented many opportunities, it also presented challenges in ensuring that "these hard-won gains are maintained". Noting that prevention was the most cost-effective means of curbing the pandemic, UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said: "We are encouraged by the progress Kenya has made recently ... the challenge is to ensure that prevention and treatment programmes complement one another, while also making provision for the increasing numbers of children left orphaned by the AIDS pandemic."