Nigeria's National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA says its major attention will now be focused on children, pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV, adolescent girls and women, and structural barriers that limit access to HIV services, as part of its efforts to achieve control and an end to the AIDS epidemic in the country by 2030.
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In a statement ahead of the World's AIDS Day, WAD, marked on Thursday, 1st December 2022, the Director-General of NACA, Dr. Gambo Aliyu said there still exists in Nigeria, a very significant number of children below 15 years who are living with HIV and are hard to locate for treatment.
"Despite the availability of free treatment services, as of today, we still have an unacceptable number of children, less than 15 years, living with HIV who are difficult to find and place on treatment,” Dr. Aliyu said.
He noted that to ensure children have better access to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment services, Nigeria joined a global alliance of countries that are interested in closing the existing gaps to achieve positive results.
“In addition, to address some of the concerns in access for children, Nigeria has joined the Global Alliance to end AIDS in Children by 2030. The alliance is currently made up of 12 countries that are committed to building momentum to address gaps, mutual accountability, and galvanizing action for results.
“In this regard we will focus on the four pillars of the Alliance which are: early testing and optimized treatment for children, closing treatment gaps for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV, preventing and detecting new infections among adolescent girls and women, and addressing structural barriers that hinder access to services, "Dr. Aliyu said.
The NACA D-G disclosed that already Nigeria has made tremendous gains in the fight against AIDS and has reached a point where it urgently needs to equalize access to vital HIV services for the vulnerable and key populations.
“In Nigeria, we are moving closer and closer to our targets. We are certainly proud of the achievements we have made, working together with our partners. Today we have 90 percent of people who are HIV positive know their status, 98 percent of these are on HIV treatment and 95 percent of those on treatment have attained viral suppression.
“Having come this far, we must all now work together to address the inequalities which pose barriers to ending the epidemic.
“We need to equalize access to essential HIV services, particularly for children, pregnant women, key populations and their partners, and those in closed settings who are often forgotten. To do this, we must, in a consistent manner, address and remove all structural barriers that negatively impact access to services.
Aliyu further revealed that one of the significant achievements recorded this year by the Agency in addressing the challenges of access is a successful PMTCT mapping to identify all locations where women access delivery services to enable it to find all HIV-positive pregnant women across the country.
He said, “Based on the findings we are working toward expanding the points of service from the current 6,000 to about 40,000 locations identified in the mapping across the 36 states and FCT. We aim to find all pregnant women, test all, treat all and report all.
“As we step up, the fight to end AIDS, the Federal Ministry of Health, through NASCP, reaffirms its commitment to continue to push for programs and policies aimed at addressing inequalities to access to high-quality HIV testing and treatment services, the NACA, DG stated.
Aliyu said that the theme for this year's World AIDS Day, which is “Equalise to End AIDS: Equal Access to Treatment & Prevention Services’’, is, therefore, a call for action and urged all stakeholders and partners to steadfastly work together to “Equalize”, and tackle stigma, discrimination, and other structural barriers that limit access to services.
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