Ebonyi HIV/AIDS’ cases drops

ABAKALIKI—The number of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Ebonyi State dropped significantly from 4 percent in 2007 down to 2.8 percent in 2008, the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA) has revealed.

Director General of NACA Professor John Idoko dropped the hint, in Abakaliki, when he represented  Nigeria’s first lady  Hajia Turai Yar’Adua at the commissioning of the Hajia Yar’Adua’s National Women Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (NAWOCA) in Ebonyi State.

Despite the recorded improvement, NACA, however, said that over 200,000 people in the state are presently living with HIV/AIDS, adding  that the rate of the scourge dropped in the state, because of the aggressive awareness campaign against the virus that was embarked upon by the wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs. Josephine Elechi.

Idoko said that the affected persons, were mainly youths between the ages of 15 and 24 and mostly girls, adding that it involves 30 to 40 percent of girls, who married early.

According to him,  girl education, micro scheme for woman would be a way out in the fight against the scourge.