19,000 adolescents living with HIV in Kaduna

About 19,000 Adolescent and Young Persons (AYPs) are living with HIV/AIDS in Kaduna State.

The Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency (KADSACA), Dr. Mark David Anthony, said this at the AYP HIV intervention stakeholders review meeting organized by UNICEF in collaboration with the AIDS agency.

He said previous responses to HIV/ AIDS had targeted adults while the young people were subsumed under the adult response.

“Gradually, the prevalence rate among adolescents increased. This ugly situation made the National AIDS Control Agency (NACA) in collaboration with UNICEF to come up with strategies targeted at adolescents where services are provided by the adolescents and young persons themselves after they had been trained to mobilize their fellow young persons to access services in form of demand creators,” he explained.

He said the AYPs between the ages of 10 and 24 were also trained to provide HIV test as well as counseling to young people. ”We were also able to identify AYP friendly facilities where this group of people can access services,” he added.

The meeting, he said, sought to ensure shared understanding of AYP HIV intervention amongst key stakeholders, to disseminate the national AYP intervention rollout strategy for Kaduna State as well as to enable participants have a shared understanding of their roles in the implementation of the AYP interventions in the state.

Earlier in an interview, Idris Baba of UNICEf Kaduna, said the present HIV interventions in Kaduna focuses on Jaba, Jema’a, Lere, Igabi, Birnin-Gwari, Kagarko and Chikun local government areas.

The district head of Salaman Jaba, Iliya Bagode who represented Jaba traditional council blamed ignorance and fear of stigma for the high prevalence of HIV in Jaba, saying with the awareness now, the prevalence was coming down.