The lack of accessibility to ARV drugs by the majority of Kenyans remains a major obstacle to HIV/AIDS patients.

Access to ARV therapy is restricted currently to major hospitals and big urban health institutions.

The main barriers to providing ARV therapy in Kenya as in many other developing countries is the cost of drugs themselves.

The standard care in ARV therapy requires viral load monitoring and CD4 cell counts. Both of these are expensive and available in only limited institutions within the country; factors which hinder access to a bigger portion of the population.

A good infrastructure for the provision of ARV therapy, in particular training of physicians involved in monitoring ARV therapy is crucial to ensure quality services.

Facilities for ARV therapy currently focused in urban health institutions with better- infrastructure will need gradual scale-up to the other parts of the country.

The Ministry of Health will take the lead in these scale-up activities and ensure that affordable quality ARV drugs are accessible to all Kenyans.

The recent legislative amendments by the Government of Kenya is aimed at enhancing ARV access to the majority of the HIV/AIDS patients

The dramatic price reductions witnessed recently offers hope that ARV drugs will soon be available. These guidelines will become useful to prescribers and other Health workers.