Kenya: premières injections d'un nouveau traitement prometteur contre le VIH en mars
Kenya will begin administering the first doses of a promising new HIV prevention treatment in 15 priority regions in March, the Ministry of Health announced Wednesday.
Lenacapavir is a new injectable treatment for HIV that only needs to be administered twice a year. According to experts, it represents a huge improvement over treatments requiring a daily pill.
Kenya is one of nine African countries selected last year to introduce lenacapavir, which has been used since December in South Africa, Eswatini and Zambia.
East and Southern Africa account for approximately 52% of the 40.8 million people living with HIV worldwide, according to 2024 data from UNAIDS.
Kenya received its first batch of 21,000 doses on Tuesday as part of an agreement with its American manufacturer Gilead Sciences and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
"The first phase of implementation will begin at the start of March and will cover 15 counties," Health Minister Aden Duale said in a statement.
"We expect an additional 12,000 doses by April," he added.
The minister specified that the US government had pledged to provide Kenya, which has an HIV prevalence of 3.7%, with an additional 25,000 doses of the drug.
The deployment of lenacapavir comes as African countries face drastic cuts in humanitarian aid, notably from the administration of President Donald Trump, which have affected HIV/AIDS programs across the continent.
Kenya maintains close ties with the United States and in December signed a $2.5 billion health aid agreement — the first bilateral agreement of its kind after Mr. Trump dismantled the US agency USAID.
Under this agreement, the United States has committed to providing $1.6 billion over five years to Kenya to work on health issues, including the fight against HIV/AIDS and malaria, as well as polio prevention.
Kenya is to contribute an additional $850 million and gradually assume more responsibilities. However, the agreement has been challenged in court by a Kenyan senator, who cites multiple constitutional violations.
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