Homabay, Siaya, and Kisumu. If you look up the prevalence rate of HIV within Kenya, you’ll find these regions to have a staggering rates of 25.7%, 23.7%, and 19.3% respectively. These cities, located in Western Kenya, are known as high HIV burden regions.

I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to visit several regions in Kenya last month; while I was there, I went to the Coptic Hospital in Nairobi and a rural clinic located in the Western region known as Maseno, about 30 minutes away from Kisumu. I was struck by the various ways the medical professionals in the rural clinic used in order to educate families both about ways that HIV is transmitted and process of treatment.

While talking to one of the head doctors , I learned that thousands of people live with HIV in the nearby regions, and close to 30-40 people who come into the clinic each day are tested positive for HIV. Shockingly, the only way many of the people in this village discover that they are HIV positive is when the clinic either tests every individual in the family for HIV since one of the family members has been found to be positive, or the clinic decides to take a trip to their home if they choose not to answer the phone when the clinic calls. 

A case like this proves how important education is for reducing the spread of disease. HIV is a disease that actually can be prevented from being transmitted to a child. However, if a mother who is HIV positive either (1) Never finds out she has the disease, or (2) Chooses not to take ART, or antiretroviral treatment, then the disease will be passed on to the child, affecting their immune system and their health even from such a young age.

How does education work towards alleviating some suffering from a disease like this? It certainly isn’t easy. HIV is a disease associated with stigma and preconceptions, but if families understand how the disease was transmitted, got tested, and took the appropriate medication then children will be born HIV-negative, slowly reducing prevalence rates to numbers much lower than they currently are. This is critical to keeping future generations of children HIV- free and born healthy.