STATEMENT BY H.E.

UHURU KENYATTA DURING A SPECIAL SUMMIT OF THE AFRICAN UNION ON HIV/AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA IN ABUJA NIGERIA JULY 15, 2013 Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. Let me start by thanking the African Union and Your Excellency, GoodLuck Jonathan, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for hosting this Summit whose objective is to review progress on the implementation of the Abuja call for accelerated action towards universal access to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria services. This is very timely given that we all committed ourselves to working collectively to halt the spread of HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to achieve the target set by Millennium Development Goal Number 6. I am pleased to inform this distinguished gathering that Kenya has made very significant progress towards this goal. The HIV prevalence has reduced from a high of 13.5% in 2000 to currently below 6% while the numbers of new HIV infections have reduced by a remarkable 50%. In the area of Tuberculosis control, Kenya has already achieved the internationally set targets of Tuberculosis detection and treatment success rates of 85%. Indeed, the number of new TB infections is now on a downward trend. With regard to malaria control, the distribution of insecticide treated bed nets to those at risk and the free access to malaria treatment has seen a marked reduction of malaria cases resulting in a 40% reduction in deaths of children less than five years of age. These achievements are a result of the scale up of access to health commodities used in the prevention and control of these 3 diseases which pose serious public health threats to this continent. Most of these commodities which require quality assurance from the World Health Organization are however not manufactured in Africa. We already have world class manufacturing facilities in Africa, with the capacity to produce everything that we need to win the war against these diseases. What we need to do is to support the manufacturing facilities that exist by provision of market within the continent. For example in East Africa, we have a WHO certified facility in Uganda, which we are calling upon you to utilize. If adequately supported, that plant can meet the needs of many African countries.

Decades of experience however tell us that health initiatives survive long enough to deliver sustainable results only if they are nationally owned and aligned to national priorities and capacities. It is therefore imperative that the African Union should fully move forward and implement the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa. Kenya commits to implement this plan of action including the production of essential commodities for the three diseases and request fellow Member States to join in making sure that we can sustain our health interventions. This plan aims at ensuring sustainable access to quality and safe medicines and other health commodities by African countries as one of the best ways to ensure that we can sustain our health interventions. With regard to malaria which continues to kill close to 1 million children on the continent annually, Kenya proposes an amendment to the Resolutions and calls for an accelerated scale up of the World Health Organization Strategy of Test, Treat, Track. This strategy will ensure universal access to diagnostic testing for all suspected malaria cases and quality-assured malaria medicines for confirmed infections, and tracking the disease through timely and accurate surveillance. Your Excellencies, I thank you.