HIV / AIDS among Kenyan Youth :: HIV in Africa

In 2001, Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the highest number ofdeaths from human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, with 29.4 jillion concourse living withAIDS 10 million young people and 3 million children. Amongthese, 12.2 million were women and 10.1 million men. In 2002,3.5 million bare-assed infections were reported. From this backdrop,Kenyans were inter estimateed on their perceptions of sex andcondom use at bottom heterosexual relationships unveil thatdenial and silence played a major role in the escalation of thepandemic while gender differences, kitchen-gardening and causation wereperceived as negatively impacting negotiation of sex andcondom use within Kenyan communities.Kagutui ka mucie gatihakagwo maturateni.(The secrets of ones home are not to be revealed to strangers)- Gikuyu bywordAIDS was a disease that shines in hush and thrives on secrecy. It wasflourishing because people were choosing not to talk about it. It wasthis realization that provoked me to go wider, beyond my personalcircle, beyond the people I worked with. The quieter we keep it the much people it will affect and stigmatize, especially while people confide that AIDS affects some people and not others (Kaleeba 29).This article is based on semi structured interviews with four Kenyan menand women on how they perceive, and manage sex and condom usewithin heterosexual relationships. It focuses on gender, culture andpower, and how these dynamics are projected, if at all, in participantsnegotiation of sexual relationships within the Kenyan community. Thepurpose of the assume is to understand the relationship between gender,power and HIV/AIDS prevention.Sub-Saharan Africa has recently recorded the highest incidences ofdeath from HIV/AIDS with a total of 29.4 million people living with thedisease. Among these, x million are young people aged fifteen to twenty four while three million are children under the age of fifteen. Inthe year 2002, 3.5 million new infections were reported (UNAIDS 2).O ne occasion for this seemingly recent rise in the number of infectionsis the result of eld of denial and silence about the existence ofHIV/AIDS. Recent statistics bode that Botswanas adult prevalenceSex, HIV/AIDS and Silence45rate for example, has peaked to 38.8 %, Lesotho 31%, Swaziland 33.4%and Zimbabwe 33.7%. In total, Africa experiences 6,000 AIDS relateddeaths per twenty-four hour period and Kenya, 18 deaths per hour (UNAIDS 3).Researchers, educators and governments now suggest the need forculturally untoughened knowledge of sexual beliefs and practices as a wayforward to disposition and evaluating patterns of HIV/AIDStransmission in different communities, in view of designing effectiveintervention programs (Lansky 3).This paper focuses on a study of culture and HIV/AIDS, and whateffects gender differences and power might be having on HIV/AIDS