Kenya's ARV drug use overtakes Uganda's

Figures showing the numbers of HIV positive patients in African countries who are receiving antiretroviral drug treatments reveal that Kenya's patient numbers receiving treatment could soon overtake Uganda's totals.

Last December, more than 70,000 people in Kenya were on ARV drugs, compared with Uganda's 79,000. An estimated 273,000 people in the former country require treatment versus 148,000 in Uganda, which has the highest proportion (53%) of treated HIV/AIDS patients among African nations.

With the improvements in treatment rates have come major falls in the prevalence of the disease: both Kenya and Uganda have seen infection rates fall from nearly 20% in the mid-1990s to under 7% at present.