Almost one percent of Kenyan children are HIV positive and the majority are not receiving treatment, the government said on Tuesday, highlighting the need to help and persuade more women to use maternal health services that are now free in public hospitals and clinics.
Almost 60 percent of Kenya's 104,000 HIV positive children are not receiving life-prolonging anti retroviral therapy (ART) because their parents do not know they are infected.
It is the first time the government has surveyed HIV prevalence among children.
"It's an area that needs attention," said Kevin De-Cocks, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Center for Global Health, speaking at the launch of the 2012 Kenya Aids Indicator Survey.
"The answer to the problem of HIV in children is the prevention of mother-to-child transmission."
Virtually all children born to HIV positive mothers become infected with HIV at birth. They could be protected if their mothers gave birth in medical centres where they are tested for HIV and given medication to prevention transmission during delivery.
The rate of transmission of HIV from mother to child in Kenya fell from 28 percent in 2005 to 8.5 percent in 2012.
The main challenge is that 56 percent of Kenyan women give birth at home, mainly because they cannot reach a health facility, do not believe it is necessary or cannot afford to pay for services.
