ENUGU STATE GOVT PARTNERS GROUP TO TREAT OVER 70,000 LIVING WITH HIV IN THE STATE

REPORTER: CHUKWUMA EZEOGU
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Over two thousand children between the ages of zero and fourteen have been identified to be diagnosed of Human Immune Virus (HIV) in Enugu State.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ikechukwu Obi, during an interview with Radio Nigeria, said that the state government in collaboration with a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), Caritas Nigeria, had provided support for the patients.

Dr. Obi while commending the leadership of the NGO for the introduction of Accelerated Control of HIV Epidemic and Sustainability Solution (ACCESS) project to provide treatment for over 70,000 persons leaving with HIV and AIDS.

He assured them of the states continued partnership in providing counterpart funds to actualize aspirations of the NGO to ensure that those leaving with the virus could not transmit the virus to others.

‘‘From the statistics that was reeled out in this meeting, the percentage of people with HIV/AIDS is about one hundred and twenty five percent.

“The people who are affected have been reached, so it tells you that HIV services is been implemented excellently in Enugu State.

“Beyond the HIV, they are bringing integration to be able to attend to other conditions,’’ he said.

The Program Director, ACCESS, Dr. Amana Effiong, said the project focus was to ensure that the over seventy thousand HIV carriers in Enugu State were placed on treatment to impede transmission of the virus.

“The focus of this project is to close the gaps that still exists within the paediatric and adolescent population, apart from doing this we plan to ensure that those who are already on treatment remain on treatment band to attain viral suppression.

“Once this is achieved it will greatly reduce the chances of them transmitting HIV to anyone else and by that we can say we have achieved epidemic control in Enugu State,” he remarked.

The ACCESS Project Chief of Party, Dr. John Oko, while explaining some treatment approaches of the project, noted that efforts were made to ensure zero HIV/AIDS death in Enugu State.

“Even though we achieve treatment population, there are still sub-population where we would have not been able to achieve treatment saturation and that’s the paediatric sub-population.

*The focus of the AP3 incident command system is to help us to work with various structures and system to be able to identify children that are HIV positive and lead them to treatment.

“We have been able to achieve treatment saturation in the state but we’ve achieved epidemic control yet.

*While epidemic control incident command system is a state where the number of people dying from HIV/AIDS is lower than the number of persons that are getting infected,” he explained.

Various stakeholders involved in HIV/AIDS treatment and advocacy, including the Executive Secretary, Enugu State Agency for the Control of AIDS, Dr. Arthur Idoko.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU