FG invests N7bn on HIV/AIDS management

April 5, 2007 :: Onwuka Nzeshi,Abuja, ThisDay,Lagos

The Federal Government has increased its budget for awareness campaign, prevention, treatment and control of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from N300,000 to a whooping N7 billion over the last eight years.

Expectedly, the level of public awareness about the disease and its spread has risen sharply from 15 per cent to 90 per cent over the same period as no fewer than 23 Nigerian languages now have translations of the HIV/AIDS campaign messages, according to the Director General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin.

 
He disclosed these at the opening of the National Summit on HIV/AIDS holding at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

Osotimehin acknowleged that the fight against AIDS has been intensified over the last eight years because the Obasanjo administration demonstrated the political will to tackle the scourge.

He however noted that the greatest challenge left was how to effectively coordinate the response of the Federal Government, the Civil Society Organisations and other development partners such as the United Nations agencies committed to eradicating the scourge.

The National Summit on HIV/AIDS, Osotimehin said, was therefore a forum to appraise what the various groups have been doing in their own spheres of influence, produce a score card and chart the way forward in the quest for a harmonised national response to the disease.

According to him, there are presently about 100,000 Nigerians placed on Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARD), adding that even in the face of these successes recorded more efforts were required to deal a permanent blow on the scourge.

Despite these efforts, research has shown that abstinence in the campaign against HIV/AIDS is yet to make the desired impact on Nigerians. Managing Director, Society or Family Health, Mr. Bright

Ekweremadu disclosed, in a presentation at the summit, that there was little evidence to show that significant progress has been made in terms of sexual behaviour change among young people.

 
 
In his paper titled 'Prevention of Sexual Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria ', Ekweremadu postulated that young people should be provided with various choices of methods of prevention of HIV/AIDS. He lamented that little empahasis has been placed on the choice of reducing sexual partners over the years despite the social acceptability of that choice, adding that the time had come to focus on partner reduction messages in a collaborative manner as it is with abstinence.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, who declared the workshop open, urged the stakeholders to use the forum to take the fight against HIV/AIDS to a new level so as to improve on what has already been achieved. He described the summit as a watershed in the fight against the scourge, adding that the multi-sectoral approach adopted by the Federal Government has yielded some good results.

Ekaette expressed hope that the result of the summit would form the bedrock of whatever policies the next government will formulate to further reduce the spread of AIDS. He acknowledged the contributions of the former National Action Committee on AIDS and its subsidiaries in the states and local government levels and charged the new National Agency for the Control of AIDS to strive to break new grounds.