Six States Account for 41% of People Living with HIV
Six states in the country presently account for 41 per cent of people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
The states are Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Lagos, Oyo, and Kano.
This was disclosed in a statement made available to THISDAY by the Hacey Health Initiative.
Nigeria is the second-largest country in terms of the number of infected persons, estimated at 1.9 million by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS.
Furthermore, the statement noted that the United Nations Population Fund Youth Participatory Platform (UNFPA YPP), in collaboration with Hacey Health Initiative empowered over 100,000 Youths in four states of the Southwest region of Nigeria through the "Beyond Treatment for Us" (BT4U) Project.
It stated that the BT4U project aims to raise awareness, train, and grant young people access to available sexual and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS services.
It further explained that globally, HIV/AIDS were leading cause of mortality among young people, citing the UNAids which revealed that in 2020, 37.7 million people were living with HIV, “and of these people, 36.0 million are adults, while 1.7 million are children between ages 0–14 years.”
The United Nations Population Fund Youth Participatory Platform (UNFPA/YPP), Coordinator, George Adjete, said the project provided 100 Young People with SRHR and HIV/AIDS Counselling Services, 63 Young People with HIV Testing Services.
The statement quoted him to have further noted that in addition to the empowerment of 100 young people, 300 Adolescents were trained on Reusable Pad Production and Menstrual Hygiene, 10,000 young people reached through Digital marketing services, “50 Young people trained on Evidence Based SRH Policy Advocacy, 100,591 young people reached with information and support via social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).”
It noted that the BT4U project which was organised in collaboration with Hacey Health Initiative, has empowered over 100,000 Youths in four states of the Southwest region.
It explained that the BT4U project aims to raise awareness, train, and grant young people access to available sexual and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS services.
According to the statement, “The project targeted young across four states (Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti) in Southwest Nigeria, providing them with information on HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment and free HIV and AIDS testing and counselling services.
“Apart from reaching over 100,000 people through social media, the project provided Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/AIDS counselling services to 100 young people. In addition, BT4U trained over 300 adolescents on menstrual hygiene.
“The project also provided 63 young people with free HIV testing services, while over 50 young SRHR Policy advocates were trained on Evidence-Based Advocacy. The focus of this project was capacity building, social media campaign, advocacy visits and youth consultations.
“Thankfully, these activities have contributed immensely to the increase in access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for young people, especially trans-genders, sex workers, prisoners and homo-sexual in Southwest Nigeria.”