The Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Dr Temitope Ilori, speaks on the disturbing statistics of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome among Nigerians, especially children, revealing that there were plans to reduce the prevalence.

Speaking on most pressing issues currently contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly among women and children, she said that as ?as DG, I would say it has been interesting, educating, and enlightening, and I have also learnt a lot. Though, I will not say I?m a stranger in the medical field. I am a medical doctor and a consultant family physician. Even before I came here, clinically, I was seeing patients with HIV/AIDS.

I have served as the Commissioner for Health in Osun State and also headed the State Agency for the Control of AIDS in Osun State. All these experiences came to bear when I got here at the federal level. But, of course, it?s been a learning curve. The HIV space is quite vast, and huge. Not only do we have local partners, but we also have international donor agencies. These were the people and agencies that we worked together at the state level. It?s not a one-man show. We are all learning from one another, rubbing minds together, and sharpening one another all in a bid to make things better for the country.

She added that ?in Nigeria, our national prevalence of HIV/AIDS is 1.3 per cent. Women account for 59 per cent of this population, which is more than males. Young people from 15 to 49 years of age account for most of the new infections. It?s popular among the younger generation. Of course, 15 to 49 years is the reproductive age for women especially. That?s when they start their sexual debut, relationship, and all that.

?We will say it is popular among women biologically because of the way the woman?s body is. In terms of sexual intercourse, their reproductive system makes them a bit vulnerable, and with this, the virus can enter their body system. And, of course, we have socio-economic issues too. In many societies including Nigeria, women cannot negotiate for sex even with their partners whether married or unmarried.

In boyfriend and girlfriend relationships, the females cannot negotiate for sex to wear condoms or other protective measures. Also, the socio-economic effect is when they don?t have the income to cater for themselves, they become dependent.

Even with commercial sex workers, women are more vulnerable. The early girl marriage is also a factor. We have so many biological and socio-economic factors that make the girl-child or woman very vulnerable to HIV infection. And that?s why there is such a high rate among women and young adults.

On whether these factors have a connection with the report that Nigerian children are among the highest with HIV infection, she said ?yes, we are recording new infections. For instance, going by the 2023 data, we realised that we had about 22,000 children born with the HIV/AIDS. That?s for new infection among those children. And if we look at the trend, there?s not much decline from over the years.

?Among adults generally, we recorded about 75,000 new infections in 2023 alone. But when we plotted the graph coming from previous years, for both male and female adults, there has been some decline in the new infections. But among the children, we are not seeing that significant decline in the new infection. That?s why we are worried. This means we have a significant proportion of children born with HIV/AIDS.

?What that is telling us is that pregnant women who have HIV/AIDS either don?t know their status, or are not getting tested. For those who have tested positive, it means that they are not accessing medications. If such people are accessing medications and using them regularly, the viral load will be low.

?And if the viral load is low, they won?t be able to transmit these infections to their children whether in pregnancy or when born alive. So, the most significant information we want to put out there is that everybody should get tested and know their status. When you know your HIV status, you can seek help. Anyone can know their status, especially pregnant women. You can go to either the primary or secondary healthcare facilities or teaching hospitals.

HIV tests are available in government health facilities for free. You can get tested and then be put on medications after your status has been confirmed. We are also working with other non-conventional partners like trained birth attendants and mission homes. We have trained traditional birth attendants in different communities, who are meant to tell the people all they need to know about the disease and to let them know their status.

The truth is that we?ve told ourselves that by creating awareness and through treatment, we will be able to reduce the number of pregnant women who are HIV-positive and who can transmit the infection to their children,? she stated.

She added that ?as I said, we don?t work in isolation. Our engagement with the National Assembly is to first educate them about what we are supposed to do, and what the HIV national response is all about and make necessary advocacy for domestic funding and domestic resource mobilisation. With this, we as a nation can have what we refer to as personability. We can sustain the national response and we are not just relying on donor partners, rather, as a government, we have our sustainability agenda and plans.

?To make sure that we can take this further, apart from the appropriation bill aspect, part of what we are doing is working on technology where we can have our domestic local production of some HIV commodities. What do I mean by HIV commodities? We want to start local production of condoms because as we speak, we?re importing condoms.

?We want to start local production of test kits to determine if someone is HIV positive or negative. Even we want to start the local manufacturing of anti-retroviral drugs. All these as we speak are imported, and you know the issue about forex; it will make them very expensive. And subsequently, it makes it very expensive for the government to sustain. We are already talking to relevant government agencies, the private sector, industries, and financiers on how they can start the local production of these items.

?The cost will be cheaper for the government to procure and it will be able to sustain the national response,? she reiterated. (Story adapted from The PUNCH)

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