The Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS has discovered that 58,000 babies are born HIV/AIDS positive in
Nigeria every year.
This
is according to the Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary General of
the United Nations, Michel Sidibe, who is currently in Nigeria on a three day
visit,
Sidibe
was speaking in Abuja after meeting with the Director-General of the National Agency
for the Control of AIDS, Prof. John Idoko.
Sidibe
said Nigeria needs to improve its testing facilities and the treatment it
provides to its citizens to win the war against HIV/AIDS.
“If
there is any one country where I should be today to be able to talk about
ending this epidemic, it should be Nigeria, because if we fail to control the
epidemic, it will be disastrous,” he said.
“If
we fail to quicken the pace and reach people, we may not be able to end the
epidemic.
“We
are in a defining moment, Nigeria has been able to demonstrate that result is
possible, that we can see decline on new infections, that we can see decline on
the number of persons who are dying from HIV/AIDS, that we can increase the
number of people on treatment.
“If
we do not demonstrate that we are capable of achieving mother to child
transmission at all levels of government and at every single place, it will be
difficult. From data in our books, 58, 000 babies are born with HIV/AIDS every
year in Nigeria,”Sidibe said.
“We
need to be able to make sure that we don’t have those babies born with HIV. We
need to make sure that we have a new generation born without HIV. With that you
would have been able to demonstrate, like I just said, at all government
levels.”
Sidibe
called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that babies are no longer dying
from HIV at the end of his tenure.
More
than 69% of people living with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Just
over 3.2% of Nigerians are known to have the HIV virus, however the real
infection rate is likely to be far higher as many do not know they have the
disease.
Only
21% of those infected with HIV in the country are currently receiving
treatment.
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