01/10/2025
New HIV infections in Kenya: what the data reveals and what we can do with research
Recent national data shows that about 66-67% of new HIV infections in Kenya are among women and girls. Women, especially adolescent girls and young women (15-24), are getting infected earlier and in greater numbers than their male peers.
My PhD research (https://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/items/406e9e4f-be24-45b9-b406-9254596bd8bb) with university students in South Africa showed that how HIV risk is talked about how youth position themselves, whether risk feels immediate, what stigma is attached to testing has a strong influence over whether people test regularly, or only in moments of crisis.
Here is how I believe those findings are relevant to Kenya’s current situation:
• The high infection rates among young women suggest that interventions need to address more than just knowledge. Social norms, peer discourses, stigma, identity, gender power dynamics play a big role.
• If many young women see risk as something that “happens to others” or feel shame around HIV testing, then they may delay testing. That reinforces undiagnosed transmission.
• Programs that make HIV testing more “normal,” less stigmatizing, more accessible in non-clinical settings (e.g. at youth centers, campuses, via social networks) may help.
• Interventions should be gender-sensitive: understand what constrains young women’s ability to test (social stigma, gender-based violence, unequal power in s*xual partnerships etc.)
Let’s use this data + insights from research to push for programs that don’t just inform, but engage with identity & culture to make testing and early diagnosis easier and less shameful.
The dominant discourses related to HIV and AIDS in South Africa still construct HIV as a huge threat, and position s*xually active youth between the ages of 15-24 years as at risk of, and living with, HIV. While an effort to manage HIV infection through practising safer s*x is relevant to mitigate s...
