WORLDS AIDS DAY: EXPERTS WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW THEIR STATUS
As the glob
al community celebrates World Aids Day, some health experts in the country want an improvement in the number of people willing to know their HIV status as parts of efforts to curtail the spread of the disease which leads to aids.
Speaking on the significance of the event, the Executive Secretary, Enugu State Agency, for HIV and Aids control, ENSACA, Doctor UcheAgu observed that only thirty per cent of people in the country have interest in checking their HIV Status.
“People should access the HIV testing services; it is by doing so that you know your status. So it is your right to know your status. It’s from that you start. If one is negative, he is encouraged to remain negative, if one is positive then he is be enrolled into treatment and care. Right once one tests positive to HIV, the person starts some treatment because he has been found to be more helpful, he has been found to suppress the virus more and then give the person a very healthy life.”
Doctor Chuka while urging people to always keep themselves in healthy condition condemned the non-chalant practice of unsafe sex.
World Aids Day was first conceived in August 1987 by James Bunnd and Thomas .Metter, two public information officers at the World Health organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Campaign on World Aids Day which was launched by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS became a public observance on 1st December, 1988.
The Joint Programme highlights issues on better communications, disease prevention and awareness.
EVELYN AUNOR