Abuja Municipal Council leads in HIV/AIDS cases

The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has the highest figure of persons living with HIV in the metropolis, an official of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT’s) Agency For Control of HIV/AIDS (FACA) said.

Dr Uche Okoro said AMAC recorded 120,000 cases of HIV as at December 2016. It is followed by Bwari Area Council.

No fewer than three million residents underwent HIV/ AIDS tests in 2016, with three per cent positive cases, he said.

He said free testing and treatment as a method of combatting the disease had reduced the prevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the territory.

He explained that Nigeria embraced the approach in 2015 following the United Nations resolution at the 2014 high level General Assembly meeting on ending AIDS.

Okoro said FACA started the pilot programme of the testand-treat method in Abuja Municipal and Bwari councils in 2015, and that it was expanded to the remaining four councils in 2017.

The official stated that the test-and-treat method had also served as preventive measure which was better and cheaper.

“There are cases we have here where one of the couples was infected with the virus and the other one was not. The infected one was taking the treatment and also still having sexual intercourse with his partner but did not infect her.

“And if such couple had a baby, the child will also not be infected because within six months of treatment, the viral load has dropped therefore such affected person cannot transmit to others,” he said.

He maintained that treatment of a positive person was for life in spite of the fact that preventive measure adopted by government was aimed at reducing the HIV prevalence.

He said FACA would continue to work with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and other development partners in the country to eradicate the disease. (NAN)