From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Federal Government of Nigeria has expressed displeasure over the rate of children living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).
To this end, the federal government, through the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), has inaugurated a committee to ensure the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
The Director General of NACA, Dr Temitope Ilori, who spoke at the inauguration of the committee in Osogbo, Osun State, on Thursday, lamented that 26,000 children within the ages of 0–14 years were infected, while 15,000 died of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria last year.
This, according to her, necessitated the decision of the agency to collaborate with state governors and local governments to eradicate further mother-to-child transmission.
“We have come today to inaugurate a committee as a prevention of mother-to-child transmission acceleration committee to ensure that no child is born positive with HIV/AIDS.
“This committee is a multi-sectoral committee. We have the president of CAN, we have people from the state ministry of health, people from the state agency for the control of AIDS, we have people from the community, and people living with HIV/AIDS are part of this committee, traditional rulers, the Muslim clergy and so many others, and the media are part of the committee. The essence is to increase the public awareness of HIV/AIDS. We are still having new infections.
“HIV/AIDS is still here with us. We are still having new infections. Just last year, we had 26,000 new infections among children aged 0–14 and 15,000 AIDS-related deaths among children 0–14 alone last year. I think it is still a public threat, and it is only when we work together with our state governors, our local governments, and agencies that we can stop this narrative,” Ilori said.
She promised that the federal government would not relent in providing medication to primary health care centres with free tests, urging people to make themselves available for the test.
