Kenya needs Sh45bn for HIV treatment
Truvada, the first pill recommended for HIV prevention in healthy people. The National Aids Control Council requires Sh45 billion annually to place HIV positive patients on treatment alone. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- Donors have traditionally supported Kenya’s healthcare, providing Sh7 for every Sh10 set aside to address HIV.
- Some 1.64 million Kenyans are currently living with the condition, but the figure could shoot to 6.9 million by 2060.
The National Aids Control Council requires Sh45 billion annually to place HIV positive patients on treatment alone.
The amount does not include other aspects of HIV control, including testing and counselling, awareness creation and prevention measures.
According to the council's deputy director, Ms Regina Ombam, they have only settled on key areas of treatment and should they include everything, then the amount will be higher.
“We are in talks with National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to see how we can include HIV treatment. We have done our evaluation and we are now in the process of identifying how to raise funds to boost the pool of NHIF resources,” she said.
SUPPORT HIV PROGRAMMES
She said the council is in talks with partners, who support HIV programmes, to channel their resources to NHIF.
Donors have traditionally supported Kenya’s healthcare, providing Sh7 for every Sh10 set aside to address HIV.
Some 1.64 million Kenyans are currently living with the condition, but the figure could shoot to 6.9 million by 2060.
But the donor stream is unpredictable and fragmented and often fails to arrive when it is most needed.
Ms Ombam warned that HIV is becoming less of a medical calamity and more of a fiscal liability.
The gap is filled by the government, private sector, households and non-governmental organisations.
PAY SH20,000
She noted that the government pays at least Sh20,000 for one person’s ARV treatment for a year, saying the introduction of NHIF cover will greatly reduce the cost.
In Kenya’s strategic framework, it had envisioned that in 2019, it will have increased its domestic financing for HIV to 50 per cent.
By 2013, the country had set aside Sh1.5 billion, which increased to Sh2.6 billion in 2015. In 2016/2017, the government set aside Sh2.8 billion.
Ms Hellen Magutu, Kenya programme co-ordinator HIV/AIDS at the International Labour Organisation, said anti-retroviral treatment is lifelong; no country should depend on donor funding.
“Transition of countries towards domestic funding is a critical area. Kenya needs to do the same. It needs to be done in a partnership mode involving donors, national governments, the private sector and civil society,” she said.
