The Federal Government has restated commitment to end the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( HIV) scourge in the country.
Secretary to the governmentt of the federation,Boss Mustapha disclosed this at the 14th anniversary celebration of the National Agency For Control of AIDS (NACA)on Monday in Abuja.
Mustapha said that governmentt’s domestic funding of the treatment of 50,000 people living with HIV yearly was in line with the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to stem the scourge.
. According to him, through the efforts of government,millions of people living with HIV have access to Anti-Retroviral (AVR) drugs.
He congratulated NACA on 14 years of impactful response to HIV and assured the Agency of government continued support.
Earlier, the Director General of NACA, Dr Gambo Aliyu said the Agency was on track in pursuance of its mandate.
Aliyu noted that since the commencement of NACA in 2007, the Agency had made significant impact as the county’s HIV prevalence rate which was 4.6 per cent with 2.9 million people living with the virus has drastically reduced to 3. 4 per cent in 10 years.
He attributed the success story to the National HIV/AIDS impact and indicator Survey ( NAIS) in 2018, which estimated 13 per cent prevalence rate.
Also speaking, the Country Director,UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS,Dr Erasmus Morah urged NACA’s leadership to remain focused as its effort in the fight against HIV made Nigeria to be at the phase of achieving UNAIDS vision 90-90-90.
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