Working With Data From NAIIS, Nigeria Can Meet 2030 Global Target To End AIDS
The Director-general of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Gambo Gumel Aliyu, in this interview with CHUKWUMA MUANYA, said with the data generated from the National AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), which showed reasonable imp
Athe moment, we can say that the country’s situation regarding the fight against Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (Hiv)/acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is good. We never knew that we have done so well in the last 15 years fighting HIV until last year when we did the National AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS).
That survey revealed to us that the programmes that we have had and whatever we’ve had in place is working; and have been very impactful reducing the prevalence from 4.4 per cent in 2005 to 1.4 per cent in 2018.
As far as this is concerned, we are embarking on a campaign to enlighten our employers and employees.
HIV situation has changed from a disease that kills to a chronic illness that can be managed just as we manage hypertension and diabetes.
As long as you take your drugs and it suppresses the virus and wipes it out from your blood, you cannot infect another person with the virus, and it cannot continue to destroy your immune system, or body defence and definitely cannot give you that bad look that it gave in the past.
If it does not do that, it will not show on your face and body. So, why discriminate and prevent somebody from being a productive employee? Some of the carriers maybe very intelligent or some of the best staff members that an employer has, so why put them away? grammes, putting people on treatment and sustaining them on treatment.
The allocation for HIV in the 2020 budget has never been that good; it has been very discouraging. The president graciously approved an increment in the amount of money NACA receives.
NACA, beginning from 2020 will now put additional 50, 000 people living with HIV/AIDS on the treatment bill of the Nigerian government.
By next year, Nigeria will be treating 100, 000 instead of the current 50, 000, so it is kudos to the President and the government of Nigeria.
Our record shows that about one million people are on treatment and our estimate shows about a million, 800, 000 or 900, 000 people are living with HIV/AIDS. If you like, you could say that close to 55 per cent of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria are currently on treatment.