FG to conduct world’s largest HIV/AIDS survey
About 170,000 Nigerians will soon be participating in the largest ever HIV/AIDS survey in the world, the Federal Government said.
The survey tagged ‘Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS)’ will be carried out under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).
Briefing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant, Community Health and Health Management, Mr Araoye Segilola said the survey would improve the health indices of the country, and enable government deploy resources to where they were needed most.
Director-General of NACA, Dr Sani Aliyu, said the nationwide survey which is the 12th of its kind in the world will start mid-June to December this year. He said it will help establish the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and also determine the distribution of Hepatitis B & C in the country.
He stated that the survey, will also help to assess the uptake of HIV services at the population level and estimate the prevalence of HIV-related risk behaviours in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Dr Aliyu said it will also involve conducting interviews and blood tests on voluntary participants, who qualify to take part, in randomly selected households across Nigeria.