PSCU
First Lady Margaret Kenyatta yesterday said HIV remains the single biggest killer of adolescents despite the many battles won against the scourge since its discovery in the 1980s.
She said the war against the disease must now be fought on a new front that involves rallying all resources, spreading correct information among risk groups, reducing stigma that continues to cling to the disease and openly talking about HIV/Aids.
“We need to talk about sex, about HIV, about drugs, and about a whole host of issues where our silence as adults and as a society, might be killing our youth and our kids,” shes said.
She was speaking when she officially opened the three-day Seventh International Conference on Peer Education, Sexuality, HIV/Aids in Nairobi.
She paid tribute an the 18-year-old school girl from Busia, Francisca Achieng, who succumbed to the scourge only a week after reciting a poem about “Living with HIV” when the First Lady delivered the 42nd mobile clinic to Busia County.
The conference at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre is organised by the National Organisation of Peer Educators (NOPE). It is being attended by delegates from 10 countries including Somalia.
NOPE is a unique forum for stakeholders to learn and share with others innovations and strategies that are working in the prevention of new HIV infections.
The First Lady said the war against the disease will not be over until the country realises zero new infections, zero HIV related deaths and zero stigma against HIV-positive people.
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