Fatuma says she knows about HIV and Aids, which, in the perfect Kiswahili tongue of Lamu, she calls “a debilitating disease”. And now, the burning question for Kenya: why would more than 400,000 of its adolescents have HIV? In some communities, however, “sponsorship” has always been a way of life, clothed in such nice-sounding concepts as “marriage”. Francis’s comments could however also be seen as a call for carriers of the HIV virus, that can lead to Aids, to refrain from having sex. Globally, and especially in Africa, new HIV infections among adolescents are not declining as quickly as among other age groups, with adolescent girls being most affected.

Source: Daily Nation December 05, 2016 19:52 UTC