BACKGROUND

HIV/AIDS is a serious problem in Kenya and indeed the entire sub-Saharan Africa.  In July 1994, the World Health Organization estimated that the world cumulative figures for those infected with HIV/AID was 16 million adults and 1 million children, the majority in Sub-Saharan Africa. Today the figures have more than doubled. According to UNAIDS (2004) some 37.8 million people were living with HIV by the end of 2003, whereas 2.9 million people had died by the same period. As of 2004, the figure given by UNAIDS was about 40 million people infected with HIV. Kenya, like many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been severely affected by HIV/AIDS since the early eighties. The first case of Aids in Kenya can be traced back to 1984 (NACC, 2005) and since then has been detected in all parts of the country.

According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDS, 2003) 6.7 % of Kenyan adults are infected with HIV. The data shows that women are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection .A prevalence of 9% was noted in adult women compared to 4.6 in adult men.  It is further estimated by NASCOP that there are currently about 150,000 AIDS deaths per year twice the rate in 1998, whereas estimates on new infections and deaths show that the rate of deaths exceeds that of new infections (NACC, 2005)  

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