BACKGROUND: People living with HIV (PLHIV) are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality due to infection by SARS-CoV-2, virus that causes COVID-19’. COVID-19 vaccines are both safe and effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection’and deaths in PLHIV. Kenya was among early adopters of COVID’ vaccination in Africa in March 2021. As of September 2022, 34% of adults of ages18 years and above in Kenya are fully vaccinated and 8% were partially vaccinated. Vaccination among PLHIV is lower than the general population. We evaluated COVID 19 vaccine uptake among adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYPLHIV), 15-24 years old during June 2021 and May 2022.
METHODS: We analysed data from 1,550 facilities using electronic medical records reported to the national data warehouse from 40 counties. AYPLHIV were defined as those aged between 15-24 years while 25+ years were defined as adults living with HIV. Vaccine uptake was defined as those who had received 1 or 2 doses; fully vaccinated were those who received 1 dose of Johnson and Johnson vaccine or 2 doses of the other vaccines. Outcome variables of interest were uptake of vaccination and completion of the recommended vaccine doses. We compared outcome measures for AYPLHIV, and adults living with HIV and tested for the difference using chi-square tests.
RESULTS: A total of 1,000,100 records reported from 40 counties were included in the analysis. Overall, 74,120 (7.4%) were AYPLHIV. Vaccine uptake among AYPLHIV was 11.2% (8,284/74,120) compared to 22.7% (210,109/925,980) among adults (p<0.001). AYPLHIV were less likely to be fully vaccinated (7.3%) than adults PLHIV (17.7%) (p<0.001). Vaccine uptake among male AYPLHIV (9.0% [2,411]) was significantly lower compared to female AYPLHIV 12.4% [5,873] (p<0.001). Vaccine uptake among AYPLHIV varied by geography. Four counties had the vaccine uptake of >20% namely, Nyeri (29%), Siaya (21%), Homa bay (21%) and Kirinyaga (21%). Counties with high AYP vaccine uptake had a similarly higher vvaccine uptake among adults living with HIV.
CONCLUSIONS: AYPLHIV have low COVID-19 vaccine uptake and completion of the recommended vaccine doses. Greater advocacy, education, and care navigation could increase COVID-19 vaccine access and uptake among AYPLHIV.