Ekiti deputy governor pledges support for people with HIV/AIDS

August 10, 2007

A bill to protect and support People Living with HIV/AIDS in Ekiti State will soon be presented to the legislative House in that state, the deputy governor, Dr. Sikiru Lawal, has said.

Dr. Lawal also promised that the state government would strive to strengthen the Local Government Action Committees on AIDS (LACA) in the state by ensuring prompt release of their monthly allocation.

He stated these at the just- concluded national meeting on the health response to the HIV/AIDS which took place in Abuja.

"Ekiti State Government is committed to maximum productivity for every citizen of the state reputed to be the knowledge basket of the nation", he said.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, argued for the imperativeness of uniform approach by all stakeholders in the area of monitoring and evaluation to make for the institutionalization of the response mechanism.

His words: "State Action Committees on AIDS (SACAS) as well as the States HIV/AIDS Sexually Transmitted Infection Control Programmes (SASCAP) in the ministries of health should be brought together to work out a comprehensive and coherent monitoring and evaluation design for purposeful result".

Prof. Osotimehin said that Global Fund Round 5 was meant to fight AIDS in all the states of the federation, adding: "a major role that the ministries of health in the states would play would be that of helping to identify treatment sites that would serve several people well