News Editor
-
Sixty thousand people already enrolled
By Edwin Philip
About sixty thousand people living with HIV in Nasarawa State have been enrolled by the Nasarawa State AIDS Control Agency, NASACA, and those yet to do so in the ongoing biometric data capturing should avail themselves inorder for them to have access to their drugs and be adequately planned for by the partners of the State and country. This is to new infection and achieve epidemic control by 2030.
The Executive Director Nasarawa State AIDS Control Agency, NASACA, Dr Ruth Bello, made this known during a one day training on youth, Adolescence friendly HIV/ AIDS Pre-prophelaxes, Prep, for personnel of media houses.
She said the fight against stigmatization has been successful, noting that previously, being HIV positive was like a dead sentence, but now someone that is negative can marry an individual that is positive.
“So the purpose of this workshop is to train media personnel on designing HIV friendly messages and to create awareness on the biometric data capturing exercise currently on going in the State.
She said “before we were thinking that people that are on drugs are over eighty thousand but with this biometric data we are actually not up to that figure” adding that, so far about sixty thousand people in the State have been registered as HIV positive stressing that potentially exposed persons that have contracted the infection are supposed to be biometrically captured.”
Dr. Bello further stated that they now have what is called pre exposure prophelaxes which are drugs taken before one is infected or to prevent his or herself from getting infected, explaining that the training was for media houses to put up friendly messages about HIV to the public and that efforts are being made to partner with the State House of Assembly to make the penalty for discrimination and stigmatization stiffer.
In his welcome address, the Nasarawa State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Gaza Gwabna, said the ministry of health and NASACA are partnering with journalist to get the correct information and languages to dessimate to adolescent and young people who are energetic, very resourceful and most times get wrong information, and as people that represent the present and the future, it is important to factor them in all plans and be taken seriously.
Dr. Bello further emphasised that
“We thought that we have halted the transmission of new cases and what we were doing is managing people that already had the disease while working to prevent mother to child epidemics in the State only to discover that we have had discordant couples with four to five children that are HIV positive and HIV mothers are giving birth to children that are HIV negative, we also have concordance couples, both HIV positive that have HIV negative children, so how to avhieves zero transmission of new cases, would be through awareness that we don’t have?, I think it is the behavior that we have not changed ”
While appreciating journalists on their previous partnership with the ministry in reproductory and sexual health, he called on them to use their voices, reach, strategy, and expertise to get to the youth and adolescence. The commissioner, who was represented by the Director of Public Health, Dr Ibrahim Al Hassan added that Nasarawa State should not be recording new cases of HIV in 2024, having worked so hard to halt the transmission.
On his part, the Manager Nasarawa State office of the Institute for Human Virology Nigeria, IHVN, Dr Eze Okah, represented by Pharmacist Moses Haggai, called for the end to the rise of new cases, as contending with what is already on ground and ensuring that every infected person is virally supressed and stable should the top in the agenda.
He thanked the Nasarawa State AIDS Control Agency and the ministry of health for bringing up the programm and gathering key stakeholders together. The event featured topical presentation on friendly approaches to giving messages on HIV, AIDS prevention, halting new infections, and sharing of ideas.
Participants were drawn from the media, legislators, government functionaries, people living with AIDS and the civil society.
