According to Dr Temitope Ilori, the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of Aids, Nigeria has the highest burden of children born with HIV/AIDS across the globe.
During her working visit/field trip to the Oyo State Ministry of Health, the Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDS, and the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr Ilori mentioned that the agency is striving to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
“In the area of prevention of Mother-to-child Transmission of HIV, it’s unfortunate that Nigeria still has the highest burden of children born with HIV/AIDS, and therefore, this is a key priority area where we want to work assiduously to ensure that our mothers, our women, are educated and informed that they should visit health centres.
“So, we are going to increase our advocacy, increase our sensitisation, increase our awareness on this to ensure that women seek help, book in the centres, where they have skilled birth attendants, and they have access to medication, because if they have access to medications, they will have a low viral load, or they will be virally suppressed, and will eliminate transmission to their unborn children.
Dr Ilori encouraged Nigerians to collaborate in order to combat HIV and achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
She commended the Oyo government for its role in the national response to HIV/AIDS in the country and for implementing the 95-95-95 targets.
The 95-95-95 targets were established by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which calls for 95 per cent of all individuals living with HIV to know their HIV status, 95 per cent of all individuals diagnosed with HIV to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 95 per cent of all individuals on antiretroviral therapy to achieve viral suppression by 2030.
