The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), on Wednesday, lamented that Ogun State, despite efforts to reduce the spread of HIV, has a greater prevalence of 1.6% compared to the national average of 1.4%.
The Agency’s Director General, Mrs Temitope Ilori, stated this during an advocacy visit focused on achieving an AIDS-Free Generation and building a sustainable HIV response in Ogun State.
Ilori, who was represented by James Anenih, the agency’s Director of Community Prevention and Care Services, alongside other team members, was received by the state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, and other relevant health stakeholders at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, on Wednesday.
She underlined that, despite progress in the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT), Nigeria still faces a formidable challenge in preventing transmission, with pediatric HIV coverage still falling short of the 95% target, standing at 33%.
According to her, the UNAIDS 2023 report shows that approximately 140,000 children aged 0-14 are living with HIV, with 22,000 new infections and 15,000 AIDS-related deaths occurring each year.
Ilori emphasized that additional work is required to ensure that no child in Ogun is born with HIV, even as she expressed gratitude to the state government for providing anti-retroviral therapy in selected health facilities.
She said, “While acknowledging the great work your excellency has done in upgrading and equipping selected health facilities to provide anti-retroviral therapy (ART) from 22 sites in 2019 to 28 sites in 2023, as well as the commissioning of the One Stop Shop and Community ART (CART) in Ogun East and Ogun West, it is imperative to note that Ogun State has an HIV prevalence greater than the national average of 1.4% and the South West average of 1.2%. There is an urgent need to halt and reverse the prevalence of the state from its current level of 1.6%.”
The director assured that the federal government is actively working to create the right environment for achieving the goal of ending AIDS as a public health issue by 2030.
Nonetheless, Ilori urged all stakeholders to partner with the agency by creating a thorough list of children with HIV, stating that this is crucial to accelerating the country’s pediatric ART program.
In response, the state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, admitted that the state’s prevalence of HIV is critical and praised NACA for visiting and inaugurating an 18-man PMTCT and Pediatric ART Committee.
She explained that the committee would supervise the care of HIV-positive pregnant women to ensure that they do not have sufficient virus to infect their unborn children and place children who are positive on treatment to prevent the spread.
The commissioner said, “Particularly, we found that more children are being born with HIV now. We want to capture them to reduce mother-to-child transmission, and we’re hoping that by the year 2030, there could be a generation that is HIV-free.
“We would be overseeing the treatment of pregnant women to make sure they have viral suppression, that they don’t have enough virus to pass on to their children.
“We would also be testing the children of individuals that we know are HIV-positive to make sure we identify them and put them on treatment as soon as possible.”