Kenya receives most of its HIV products from the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar).
HIV commodities worth about Sh30 billion are lying at the Mombasa Road warehouses of the Mission for Essential Drugs & Supplies (MEDS), awaiting distribution, the NSDCC has said.
The consignment comprises antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, testing kits, condoms, lubricants, needles and syringes, laboratory reagents, viral load and CD4 testing supplies among other supplies.
The NSDCC has proposed that the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority distributes the products.
“The cost of that distribution is Sh1.2 billion. That is the amount government needs that so that KEMSA distributes last mile to all the facilities in the country,” said Douglas Bosire, the head of county support division at the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC).
Below is a list of antiretroviral drugs and laboratory commodities supported by PEPFAR but currently at Mission for Essential Drugs Supply warehouse.
Bosire noted the drugs include Nevirapine, a drug used particularly for prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
“They are there. We don't have stocks in the main pipeline so much, but they are there in the consignment that is at MEDS and it needs to be distributed so that the mothers of Wajir don't continue transmitting the virus to their children. In Wajir, out of every 100 mothers who are HIV positive, 33 transmit the virus to their children, which is something that we must stop,” he said.
He spoke on Wednesday at a high-level consultative forum organised by the NSDCC in Nairobi.
The US funding cut is also expected to affect a total of 41,547 staff who provide HIV services, including clinical services, community support, and program management across 40 counties, from health facilities at level II to VI (October 1st 2024 to September 30, 2025).
The Council of Governors said these health workers will lose their jobs.
