Strategic Focus

Through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Kenya works with multiple stakeholders including the Kenya Ministry of Health (MOH), local and international partners to support and strengthen prevention and control efforts for the HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. To achieve these goals, CDC Kenya:

• Supports the Kenya MOH in the development of strategic policy guidelines through technical and financial support, enabling Kenya to be an early adopter of new scientific evidence in HIV and TB programming.

• Provides funding and technical assistance to local and international partners to support both national and county-level efforts in HIV prevention, identification, linkage, treatment and retention of people living with HIV (PLHIV), with a specific focus on high burden areas and underserved populations, in line with the Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework.

• Serves as the leading technical partner to the Kenya MOH in national HIV surveillance and evaluation efforts to ensure program implementation is based on the most recent, relevant and science-based data.

• Provides technical leadership in the implementation of high quality laboratory services in Kenya through laboratory infrastructure improvement, capacity building of health workers and optimization of the lab-clinical interface.

• Supports partners in establishing and maintaining sound financial management systems to ensure transparency, accountability and compliance with federal regulations.

Key Activities and Accomplishments

Comprehensive HIV Treatment: CDC has provided support for antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all PLHIV by focusing on same day initiation and differentiated service delivery models for adults and children. Through enhanced geographic and population focus for implementation, fiscal year 2017 PEPFAR program data shows that CDC supported the provision of ART to 60% of PLHIV in PEPFAR-supported sites.

Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission: In order to achieve virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV, CDC has provided support to optimize identification, treatment, retention and viral suppression among HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women.

HIV Prevention: CDC has supported interventions that increase access to voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), HIV testing services, evidence-based behavioral interventions, and prevention programs for key populations. CDC is a lead agency in the implementation of the Determined Resilient Empowered AIDS Free Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) initiative – a comprehensive program that aims to reduce HIV incidence among highly vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in Kenya.

TB/HIV: CDC has provided technical support to the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Disease Program in 1) the development of strategic policy guidelines and 2) the coordination and reporting efforts needed to enhance integrated care for TB and HIV. Through these efforts, Kenya continues to be a leader in HIV testing for TB patients, ART uptake for TB/HIV co-infected patients, and TB prevention among PLHIV through Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT).

HIV Surveillance and Epidemiology: CDC supports public health research and implementation of HIV surveillance systems. Key achievements include epidemiological studies in the health and demographic surveillance systems, HIV Case-Based Surveillance, mortuary based assessment of HIV-associated mortality, integrated biological and behavioral surveillance of key populations, triangulation of data from research and program to better inform PEPFAR planning.

Health Systems and Evaluation: CDC led the technical design and development of a national certification framework for electronic medical records (EMRs) in Kenya – once translated into national policy, this framework will standardize the use of EMRs in Kenya and improve governance of health information systems. CDC has also been a key contributor to aligning PEPFAR and MOH data to streamline monitoring and reporting of key outcomes.

Laboratory Systems and Networks Strengthening: CDC supports laboratory accreditation and training, quality assurance for HIV testing, drug resistance testing, early infant diagnosis, and blood safety and infection control for healthcare and laboratory facilities. Currently, CDC supported laboratories directly contributed to two thirds of the more than 1 million viral load tests conducted annually in Kenya.