Management & Policies -ARV Therapy for Children under 5 years in Kenya: Barriers to Management Systems, Care & Policies to Anti Retroviral Therapy for Children under 5 in Nyanza Region - Tapa blanda

According to KDHS (2003) the mortality of under five years children in Kenya continued to increase from 112/1000 in1998 and 115/1000 in 2003. This is attributed to URTI, diarrhea, measles, malaria, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and their combinations. Access to care is hampered by prevalence of costly specialized services as the poor are left with fewer affordable care options. In 2006, UNAIDS noted that the Kenya ARV Access Program would have several challenges to the universal access related to prevention, treatment, care and support, inefficient commodity management, human resources and inadequate monitoring and evaluation strategies. Many barriers remain to scaling up HIV prevention, treatment and management of children in RPCs. Training of practitioners in the skills required to care for this category of children with HIV infection is necessary to increase the number receiving ART. Lack of availability of appropriate ARV drug formulation that is easily usable and inexpensive is a major impediment to optimal care for children with HIV. The purpose of this study was to investigate the management, financing, insurance and economic policies of ART for these children in Nyanza Region.

ABOUT THE AUTHORSBonaventure Okello Agina, is Senior Lecturer at Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Dean at the School of Health Sciences, Kenyatta University, Kenya. He is a Sex and Reproductive Health Specialist and has a Master of Medicine (University of Nairobi), and several Postgraduate degrees from USA, Germany and Israel.