Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. Kenya Launches Safe Blood Collection Effort Joe DeCapua 21 June 2010 The testing and screening of blood have become a big part of fighting HIV / AIDS in developing countries. The tests can determine the health of a personâs immune system by measuring the level of disease fighting CD4 cells. The lower the level, the more advanced the disease. But local clinics donât always have enough staff or training to keep up with demand -- or to ensure that the blood is collected safely. However, Kenya is taking action Monday to change that with the launch of a new program. It has partnered with the U.S. medical technology firm BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)  and PEPFAR, the Presidentâs Emergency Plan for AIDS relief,  to train clinicians how to safely collect and handle blood. Big problem Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, head of Kenyaâs National AIDS / STD Control Program, describes the scope of Kenyaâs HIV/AIDS problem. âWe estimate that HIV prevalence in Kenya is around 7 percent. That is looking at people between 15 years and 64 years old. And thereâs a big difference between men and women. Womenâs HIV prevalence is around 8.4 percent and men itâs 5.3 percent,â he says. He says it means that out of a population of 40 million, about 1.4 million people in Kenya are living with HIV/AIDS. Muraguri says Kenya has a new HIV strategic plan. âWe have an ambitious program to eliminate potentially any risk of HIV transmission in our health care settings. We have around 650,000 people currently under care. These are people who are HIV positive.â Caring for them involves blood tests, a minimum of about two per year per person. âWeâre talking about 1.2 million samples being drawn,â says Dr. Muraguri. Blood samples are drawn for other diseases as well. âNow if thatâs not done properly, there is an obvious risk to the health worker and also a risk to the patient as well,â he says. âWithin a certain environment we can completely stop transmission.â Training âWe have picked 8 facilities in 4 regions. We are basically covering high prevalence regions. So we could have HIV prevalence as high as 15 percent in some of the regions,â he says. He says the program builds on earlier efforts to ensure injection safety, which includes proper methods of using hypodermic needles and disposing of them safely. Safe blood collection also includes the quality of the specimen. He says, âIf you donât get a correct sampleâ¦you probably mismanage the patient as well.â Initially, 20 Kenyan health care workers at the 8 clinics will be trained by BD. They in turn will train others. BD says the goal is to âultimately train thousands of health care workers in developing countries.â The firm, based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, describes itself as one of PEPFARâs âstrongest collaborators.â BD says itâs also underwriting the construction of two incinerators in Kenya that will be used to safely dispose of used blood-related devices. .