The Federal Government on Monday in Abuja expressed appreciation on the significant progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but declared that the country records 281,000 new infections yearly.
According to the Federal Government, only 400,000 persons living with the disease are receiving drugs out of the 3 million people currently affected. About 1.5 million people are required to be on life saving anti-retroviral drugs.
The Director-General of the National Action Committee on AIDS, Prof. John Idoko, stated this at the zonal consultations on ownership for sustainable HIV response where he also attributed the irregular funding of NACA by donor agencies to global meltdown in the past three years.
He said, “We have seen very significant progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Nigeria – more than 25 per cent HIV decline between 2001 and 2009. However, we still have very significant gaps.
“Nigeria has the largest burden of transmission of mother child of HIV in the world – 30 per cent with about 70,000 children born every year with HIV. These children hardly live to see their third birthday without treatment.”
Idoko said much remained to be accomplished if future generations were to live in a world in which the threat of AIDS had been overcome.
He said, “If we are to transform the landscape of AIDS, it must remain high on the national and global agenda.
“We must move to a response that is long-term and sustainable-one that makes full use of the knowledge and resources developed over the past three decades, yet continues and respond to a changing world that is constantly influencing the future of AIDS.”
The NACA boss also called on donor agencies to ensure regular funding of the agency.
He said, “Funding remains largely externally driven and this is unsustainable. Over 80 per cent of our funding for the AIDS response is from donors.”
http://www.punchng.com/news/nigeria-records-281000-case-of-hiv-annually-fg/
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