Majority of HIV/AIDS infected Nigerians not on treatment

Only 24 per cent people living with HIV in Nigeria are on treatment. An estimated 3.4 million Nigerians are living with HIV. This means an about 2.4 million Nigerians are walking around without treatment, posing significant risk to the rest of the population.

Manhattan Charurat, director, division of epidemiology and prevention, Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore, U.S stated this during a presentation at the National Agency for Control of AIDS conference in Abuja on November 30.

“Only 24% of people living with HIV in Nigeria are on treatment so more clearly needs to be done,” Charurat said at the National Agency for Control of AIDS conference in Abuja.

This is as John Bray, U.S. Consulate General in Lagos, on November 29 said that the U.S. Government had disbursed over $3.4 billion to support the Nigerian HIV/AIDS response.

According to him, this disbursement has been since the inception of its President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2004.

Bray said that PEPFAR was a U.S. Governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help to save the lives of those suffering from the disease, primarily in Africa.

“We have made significant progress to reduce new cases and it has fallen from 6 per cent prevalence in 2001 to 3per cent in 2014,” John Idoko, the immediate past director General of National Agency for Control of AIDS told BusinessDay.

To address the inability of patients receiving treatment, WHO has released new guidelines on HIV self-testing to improve access to and uptake of HIV diagnosis as part of its activities to mark World AIDS Day.

According to a new WHO progress report, lack of  HIV diagnosis is a major obstacle to implementing the Organization’s recommendation that everyone with HIV should be offered antiretroviral therapy (ART).

“Millions of people with HIV are still missing out on life-saving treatment, which can also prevent HIV transmission to others,” said Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “HIV self-testing should open the door for many more people to know their HIV status and find out how to get treatment and access prevention services.”

Anthonia Obokoh