Nandi County First Lady HE Mrs. Florence Lagat has called on residents to shun from stigmatizing on people persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Speaking during a function in marking the World Aids Day held at Kaiboi Technical Institute in Mosop Sub County Mrs Lagat said contraction of HIV/AIDs is not the end of live and the society should learn to encourage those people living with HIV/AIDs to live positively, ‘’ contracting Aids is not a death sentence’’ she added.
According to the County’s First Lady through the efforts of the National Government and the devolved County government, the rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nandi County has substantially dropped from 12% in 2004, to 4.3% in the year 2014.
Moreover, she highlighted widely measures the County government has undertaken so far, in partnership with the National government, and the Private sector, in ending the rate of HIV/AIDS infections.
The County has ensured that the 36 VCT Centers, 23 Health Facilities and 145 health care centers concerned with maternal health, are all able to provide care and treatment for persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Currently, 10, 977 patients have been admitted for care at these facilities to prevent death due to Aids-related illness. The successes arising from these measures are; the county has an ART (Anti-Retroviral Treatment) coverage of 82%, making Nandi County ranked 19 out of the 47 Counties, she added.
She also recognized the efforts made by His Excellency the President, Uhuru Kenyatta to end infections among adolescents and Youth through the ‘All in’ campaign launched early this year, to ensure a healthy and economically productive future. Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta has been instrumental in the support of maternal health care, eliminating HIV mother-child infections, through the ‘Beyond Zero’ campaign done annually.
On his part deputy governor Dominic Biwott recognized the private partners who have been supporting the government fighting the epidemic like Walter Reed, Ampath, World Vision, I Choose Africa and USAID.
He further reiterated the County government’s efforts in fighting the epidemic, adding that County through the Department of Health has made efforts to conduct awareness campaigns and it has done its part to ensure that hospitals and health facilities around the county have access to medicine and information regarding the prevention and Control of the disease.
He further, said that the government in January 2016 supplementary Budget will allocate some funds to support groups. In addition he encouraged the distribution of Medical supplies to these groups in order to fight Opportunistic Infections.
Present also were the CEC Public Health Matthew Rotich, Mosop Sub-County Administrator Mr Sammy Keter and Deputy County Commissioner Nandi North Mr Githeka .