Enugu State making good strides toward ending HIV/AIDS transmission, says official
Enugu State has made some progress in reducing the number of HIV and AIDS-related transmissions in the general population.
The Executive Secretary, Enugu State Agency for Control of AIDS (ENSACA), Dr. Author Idoko, made this known in an interview with the newsmen in commemoration of 2022 World AIDS Day in Enugu.
He said that the agency's coordination of the activities of implementing partners, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, and various networks had also helped in the fight against the virus.
"The agency is unrelenting in its resolve and making steady progress." "We have our eyes on the ball to effectively ensure that the prevalence and burden of HIV/AIDS in the state are considerably reduced and ensure a healthy, safe, and vibrant environment for all," he said.
Idolo, who is the immediate past chairman of the Enugu State Hospitals Management Board, said that the commemoration of HIV/AIDS every year is meant to sustain the effort to continue to make people aware that it is not a death sentence.
"It is not a death sentence." It offers a pedestal to keep focusing on the goal of fighting HIV/AIDS to its conclusion.
"If you test negative for HIV, continue to stay safe and if you have it, you should continue to take your drugs to live healthy.
He said Dec. 1 every year is globally commemorated as the World AIDS Day in remembrance of all the people infected and affected of the HIV)AIDS, providing an opportunity for escalation of HIV/AIDS health promotion, preventive, treatment and rehabilitative messages.
He said that the theme of the 2022 World AIDS Day aimed at making equal access to preventive and treatment services as well as quality Services to all people of extraction.
The theme for the celebration is' Equalise to end AIDS.
Supreme reports that the Director-General of the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Gambo Aliyu, warned that girls and women in Nigeria are disproportionately burdened by HIV, which causes AIDS.
Aliyu made in a keynote address during dissemination of the 'Report of the Gender Assessment of the HIV Response in Nigeria, 2022', said the most recent data available from Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) – AIDS info, 2021- shows that HIV prevalence among adult women aged 15 to 49 years (1.6 per cent) is considerably higher than of men at 1.0 per cent.
"Furthermore, in 2020, women accounted for 62 per cent of new HIV infections among adults in the country, while more women than men are retained in HIV care and have higher viral suppression rates," Aliyu said.
He said NACA, with support from UNAIDS Country Office (UCO) in Nigeria and the Joint UN Team on AIDS, conducted the first Gender Assessment of the HIV Response in 2013. He said its findings and recommendations facilitated the development of evidence-based priorities to achieve a gender transformative, equitable and rights-based approach in the response.
Aliyu said to ensure a sustained gender response in HIV/AIDS programming, a second Gender Assessment was conducted in 2021, with support from UNAIDS and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
