PEPFAR To Provide More Than $208M to Programs Fighting HIV/AIDS in Kenya in 2006
The U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday announced that the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2006 will provide more than $208 million for HIV treatment, care and prevention programs in Kenya, Reuters reports (Reuters, 2/17). More than half of the funding will support expanding a program that provides access to antiretroviral drugs to more than 35,000 people across the country, according to the U.S. embassy in Nairobi (Xinhua, 2/17). The 2006 PEPFAR plan also calls for $41 million to be spent on prevention, including programs that aim to prevent 32,000 infants from contracting the virus through mother-to-child transmission, promote abstinence and fidelity among Kenyan youth and promote "correct and consistent use of condoms by people who engage in risky sexual behavior," according to an embassy release. PEPFAR funds in Kenya are implemented by nongovernmental organizations, the Kenyan government and faith-based organizations, with technical assistance from U.S. government agencies (U.S. embassy release, 2/17). Kenya's HIV/AIDS prevalence fell from 14% in 2000 to 7% in 2004 (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/3/05).
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