By Sola Ogundipe

No less than 20,000 residents of Lagos are being targeted as the State government begins a week-long free HIV Testing Services as part of activities to mark this year’s World AIDS Day on 1st December.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, LSACA, Dr. Monsurat Adeleke, who disclosed this weekend, said a minimum of 1,000 persons will be reached in each of the 20 Local Government Areas of the State especially the hard-to-reach communities in order to complement the routine HIV Testing Services at the various facilities and increase uptake.

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So far this year, the State, in collaboration with implementing partners has provided HIV Testing Services to 101,123 clients in the communities (non-health sector) and 408,817 clients in the facilities (health sector) with over 78,080 clients currently on treatment.

Speaking on the World AIDS Day with the theme: “Community makes the Difference”, Adeleke said it is in recognition of the global trend in HIV intervention to eliminate new infections, discrimination, and AIDS-related deaths, that the Agency has scaled-up community outreach campaigns which tallied with this year’s theme.

Adeleke said the Agency is conducting Free HIV Testing Services towards attaining early HIV detection and treatment in line with the global target of epidemic control by 2020,

The UNAIDS 90-90-90 initiative provides for  90 percent of those living with HIV to know their status by 2020, even as 90 percent of those that know status access antiretroviral therapy, ART,  by 2020 and 90 percent  of those accessing ART are virally suppressed by 2020, towards achieving HIV eradication by 2030.

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The LSACA boss remarked that in line with the Agency’s goal of attaining  an HIV free generation, it has continuously designed interventions targeted at reducing the HIV prevalence in the state  as evidenced by the findings of the recently conducted  Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey, NAIIS, which puts the State’s HIV prevalence at 1.4 percent, which according to her, is still a high figure considering the population of Lagos State.

Calling for more collaboration, she urged Chairmen of the Local Government Councils to reach more communities in order to increase the uptake of HIV services.

vanguard