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Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), an NGO, has called on the Federal Government to keep its promise to fund testing and treatment of HIV/Aids in order to put the virus under control.
Dr Kema Onu, Site Coordinator of the Foundation, made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a sensitisation workshop as part of activities to mark the 2016 World’s Aids Day.
He identified inadequate domestic funding in the face of declining assistance from foreign donors the major challenge facing HIV response in Nigeria.
He urged the government to scale up the political will and step up domestic funding in order to achieve healthy population.
“Funding is still a huge challenge and we want the government to take full responsibility of funding as some patients still pay for their lab test in some states.
“Nigeria has the capacity to fund and sustain the fight against the virus; we should take up the responsibility of our citizens and foreign donors can complement us.
“We want the government to fund the procurement of anti-retro viral drugs in order to end the scourge in Nigeria and globally,’’ he said.
Onu appealed to foreign countries such as Germany, China among others, carrying out social responsibilities in Nigeria to increase their funding for the treatment of HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
He said that are still a large number of Nigerians who do not have access to treatment for HIV/AIDs, adding that increasing funding would enable more persons to receive treatment.
“Statistics from UNAIDS shows that over 3.2 million people are living with the virus in Nigeria and only about 700,000 are on treatment, which translates to 27 percent treatment gap which is a huge challenge.
“Out of over 3.2 million persons living with the virus, about 1.3 million are young women and girls between the ages of 15 to 24 years.
“Over 170,000 new infections are recorded annually with over 220,000 Aids-related deaths yearly,’’ he said.
The coordinator said that achieving an Aids-free generation was possible if more people knew their status and those found positive placed on treatment.
He said that the awareness level of HIV was high in Nigeria, and stressed the need for behavioural change among the youths to enable them take healthy decisions.
AHF Nigeria has been operating in the country since 2011 and has offices in six states in the federation.