UNAIDS hails Nigeria’s progress on HIV/AIDS fight

The United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) in Abuja on Monday applauded Nigeria for its efforts to reduce the number of HIV cases in newborn babies.

Mr Bilali Camara, UNAIDS Country Director, made the statement at a news conference on the launch of its `Protect the Goal’ campaign in Nigeria, designed to use sports to promote HIV service.

“After the launch of the presidential comprehensive response plan on HIV and AIDS, Nigeria has together taken the responsibility and ownership of its epidemic.

“The year 2013 has been an unprecedented success story in the fight against HIV, for instance, the country  was able to put 148 new people on HIV treatment for one year.

“Again, Nigeria has been able to test 1.6 million pregnant women for HIV, create more than 500 Prevention from Mother to Child Treatment (PMTCT) sites.

“The reality is simple that Nigeria is moving and looking at all the initiatives going on and the commitment at the state and local government level, we can be optimistic that we will be more successful, ”he said.

Camara said Protect the Goal campaign would be used to support the UNAIDS vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

In his speech, Prof. John Idoko, Director General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, said HIV was related to all the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Idoko said the agency would use the campaign to target young people, adding that “70 per cent of Nigerians are below the age of 30.’’

He added that 40 per cent of the youth did not know their HIV status and lacked comprehensive HIV education.

“ We need to target young people because 70 per cent of Nigerians are below the age of 30.

“This means we must work hard to make sure that we can bring up this young population to be vibrant and contribute to the economy of our country,’’ Idoko said.

He said stigma had been identified as the major issue in the fight against the virus and  advised the youth to avoid alcohol and drugs as such could cause them to get involved in risky behaviour.

Idoko said the rate of condom use was very low in the country and so advised people to abstain or use condom for HIV protection.

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