1m patients under Nigeria’s national HIV treatment plan get support from US president’s emergency plan

More than one million patients in the Nigeria national HIV treatment programme have been supported by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in bid to bridge the gap in HIV epidemic control in the country.

Through innovations, PEPFAR helped to diagnose and place close to 6,000 HIV-infected Nigerians a week on treatment, said a statement from the US Embassy in Abuja commemorating 2020 World AIDS Day.

With an effort considered the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease, the U.S. government, through PEPFAR, has invested more than $85 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response and saved more than 17 million lives, working in 54 countries since 2003.

Within the most populated African country, Nigeria, PEPFAR has invested more than $6 billion in the national HIV/AIDS response.

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Its results include that more than 1 million, women and children currently on HIV treatment. In Financial Year 2020 alone:

As of 2020, More than 8.2 million people have received HIV counseling and testing services; and over 1.2 million pregnant women received HIV testing and counseling toward prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Also approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV received support to improve quality of life, including TB/HIV care services while about 1.3 million orphans and vulnerable children received care and support services.

Equally, PEPFAR supports Nigeria in the critical areas of policy development, human capacity development, and overarching health systems strengthening, including provision of state-of-the art laboratories and pharmaceutical warehouses, to enhance Nigeria’s health systems.

Relying on PEPFAR’s existing infrastructures for laboratory services, including sample transport and supply chains, the Nigerian government was able to tap into these existing structures to further test and identify COVID-19 patients.

“Nigerian health systems were put to the test this year. Our accomplishments would not have been possible without the strong partnership and collaboration with the Government of Nigeria, at the federal, state, and local levels,” the statement said.

In 2019, assessment by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) found Nigeria to have progressed steadily on increasing access to treatment for people living with HIV, with the adoption of a test and treat policy in 2016.

From 2010 to 2017, Nigeria almost tripled the number of people living with HIV having access to antiretroviral therapy, up from 360 000 people in 2010 to more than 1 million people in 2018.

However, new estimates indicate that more than half of people

Erasmus Morah, the country director, Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), on Monday said no fewer than 1.6 million Nigerians died of HIV/AIDS since the outbreak of the epidemic in 1985.