Immunity boost for Kenyan children living with HIV
More Kenyan children living with HIV are adhering to drugs, showing better outcomes on their health.
What you need to know:
- The study shows there was a 10 per cent decline in viral load non-suppression between the years 2015 and 2021.
- In 2021, the study shows that there were about 100, 000 Kenyan children living with HIV, which is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the number of people living with HIV in Kenya.
More Kenyan children living with HIV are adhering to drugs, showing better outcomes on their health. This is according to a new study published in the scientific journal Lancet eClinical Medicine.
The study shows there was a 10 per cent decline in viral load non-suppression between the years 2015 and 2021.
In 2021, the study shows that there were about 100, 000 Kenyan children living with HIV, which is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the number of people living with HIV in Kenya.
In 2022, the study indicates that about three in 10 children living with HIV had not accessed testing, while another four in 10 were not on treatment, and even those on antiretroviral therapy (ART) were not virally suppressed.
Viral suppression means that a person living with HIV has a viral load (or the amount of the virus in the body) that has 1,000 copies per every millilitre. It shows that they are adhering to ART and its effectiveness, which implies that they are less likely to transmit new infections.
A viral load non-suppression (VLNS) therefore means that there is no adherence to the drugs. A decrease in viral load non-suppression means that there is a positive outcome that will boost the children’s immunity, reduce optimistic infections and result in less deaths.
The researchers link the decline to the paediatric friendly HIV drugs, which they say are effective in achieving and maintaining viral suppression.
“To win the war on viral load non-suppression in children, HIV clinicians must provide optimised treatment while providers ensure children remain in care and adhere to treatment,” say the scientists.
“This is because paediatric HIV poses unique challenges since HIV RNA (Ribonucleic acid) levels remain high throughout infancy due to immature immune systems, which impair viral control and result in rapid progression to death,” they added.
Even so, the Lancet study shows that children from seven counties namely Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Garissa, Isiolo, Mandera, Samburu, Tana River and Turkana, had relatively high viral load non-suppression rates.
“Policymakers in the Ministry of Health should continue early infant diagnosis, linkage to care and viral load monitoring, which has resulted in a 50 per cent decrease in VLNS over a seven-year period,” shows the study.
The scientists say that adherence to the HIV drugs for infants is largely attributed to the Linda Mama programme that ensured mothers got skilled delivery in hospitals and were paid for by the government.
“Several enabling factors that have made the Linda Mama programme successful include linkage and retention into care for the mother and infant. This has played a key role in preventing mother-to-child-transmission, and reduction of viremia (the amount of virus in the blood) in infants who access ART very early in life, which reduces the reservoir size and thus hastens the time to achieve viremia suppression,” said the researchers.
The researchers also recommend that there needs to be a shift from Nevirapine-based drug to a Dolutegravir-based regimen so as to achieve viral load non-suppression, which they say is important for the control of HIV/Aids epidemic.
The scientists got their viral load data from the National AIDS and STI Control Program.
