HIV/AIDS:EVERY NIGERIAN WHO HAD TESTED POSITIVE TO HIV WOULD AUTMATICALLY BE ELIGIBLE FOR TREATMENT
Nigeria has made giant strides in its fight against the
HIV/AIDS, as more children are being born HIV negative. Again, the government
has stated that every Nigerian who had tested positive to HIV would
automatically be eligible for free treatment. This was disclosed by the
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja, during the
official opening of the central dissemination of the 2016 national guidelines
for HIV prevention treatment and care, organised by the Institute of Human
Virology Nigeria. The government also disagreed with critics that its HIV/AIDS
programme had been a disaster, saying such criticism is a connotation of
incompetence, compared with teh situation in other countries. Ehanire
emphasised that the treatment for persons who test positive to HIV/AIDS would
no longer favour a selected few. “I disagree completely with critics, not
because I am compelled to disagree, but because nothing is happening around us
that suggests that our HIV programme is a disaster,” the minister said. At the
event, the IHVN said the rate of infants infected with the virus from the womb
has dropped effectively. Ehanire said, “The 2016 guidelines is, by today’s
standard, cutting edge, its recommendations are audacious, unambiguous and
unapologetically pro-patient. “From this day henceforth, everyone who tests
positive to HIV is automatically eligible for treatment and this applies to
everyone with equal emphasis, child, man and woman, pregnant or not. “From
today onward, we are duty bound to offer anti-retroviral drugs as prevention to
all persons who are at a high risk of contracting HIV Infection. From today
forward, all persons on treatment are entitled to at least one viral load test
per year. “From today, we will place greater emphasis on differentiated systems
of care that are adjustable to the individual needs of the patient, and today,
we hopefully bring to an end the argument over deeply divisive Option B and
Option B+ saga.” The Chief Executive Officer, IHVN, Dr. Patrick Dakum, said
that less infants exposed to HIV in the country were born positive when
compared to previous years. He however stressed the need for Nigeria “which
currently has the highest figure of infected infants in the world”, to join
other countries in recording zero level of pregnant mother to child
transmission of HIV, since the prevention method was long and known. “We have
come a long way. In the past, if 100 women who are positive give birth, almost
30 of the babies that are exposed will have HIV. Now in most facilities where
these is, it is much more less than 3 per cent and we have less babies being
born with HIV than it was before”, Dakum stated.
