Being alive is great but taking care of that life seems to be the challenge for many people who enjoy freestyle options and actions believing its freedom yet many have ended up being caged or harmed by some choices and lifestyles.
World Aids day in Kilifi county came with a shocking statistic in Kilifi county as it came to light that 4000 gay couples are HIV positive.
The revelation was made by County Health executive Anisa Omar who noted that a shocking 4 people in every 100 are infected with the virus.
Addressing journalists in Malindi after gracing the world Aids day, Dr.Anisa said reports indicate that one in four gays is infected with HIV and the numbers continue to rise despite measures to curb new infections.
“We have come to realize that there is a sexually trend going on, which is men having sex with men (MSM), it is dangerous though we have measure controlling those doing it,” she said Part of the reason of the high number of HIV positive individuals in the county was because of an equally high number of people engaging in same-sex relationship.
Anisa revealed that currently there are 12,000 gays in Malindi town alone and that 4,000 are infected with HIV and Aids virus.
It is a disheartening situation which health officials in Kilifi attribute to several factors , including high poverty levels, poor upbringing and the Kilifi nightlife which further exposes individuals to the disease.
According to Anisa, men also had a tendency to engage in sex with their own kind because some were being paid for it.
“It is possible that our young men to have sex with other men for money, this is a challenge to us especially when it come to controlling HIV/AIDS infections,” she went on.
Out of the 4000 newly infected people, upto 19 percent were discovered to be teenagers who had started engaging in sexual activity at a tender age.
Alarm bells of the rate of HIV infections in Kilifi were initially rang towards the beginning of the 2019 KCPE exams when it was discovered that the county had the highest number of teen pregnancies in the country.
The fact that some of the new mothers are also HIV positive has been found to be a contributing factor to the high rates of HIV infections.
What do you personally think is the reason behind this shocking statistics in Kilifi?