BY VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA— President Goodluck Jonathan will on Wednesday in New York speak at the United Nations high level meeting on AIDS.

The President is expected to deliver a speech during the Security Council meeting on the “Impact of HIV and International Peace and Security.”

Vanguard gathered that Jonathan will be accompanied to the meeting by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, in support of her activities in the area of preventing stigma and discrimination.

Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Prof John Idoko, who will also accompany the president to the three-day meeting, will present a paper, titled “The Nigerian national response to HIV”.

The meeting is important to Nigeria as the country’s HIV prevalence rate is currently 4.1%, which is significantly high, considering Nigeria’s population.

The efforts of the National multi-sectoral HIV response in Nigeria being lead by NACA, is plagued by human and financial resource limitations, poor health infrastructure and linkages, and non-existent or inadequate service provision in rural areas.

Nigeria’s prevalence rates are higher than the sub-Saharan African average rate of 3.4%. Nigeria contributes the second highest burden of HIV, next only to South Africa, globally.

Though there had been a decline from 4.6% in 2008, there are records of considerable increase in prevalence in some states and in rural areas.

Nigeria still contributes about 30% of the global gap on mother-to child transmission and records about 1000 new HIV infections daily.