By Peter Duru & Ndahi Marama
MAKURDI—Benue and Borno states have expressed alarm over the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the areas put at 616,396. Benue State Government made this known as the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi, Dr. Mathias Oyigeya, asked the Federal Government to establish more hospitals to handle the issue in the state, while Borno State blamed the high incidence of the disease on the past administrations’ lack of interest in combating its spread.

Statistics

The Commissioner for Health in Benue State, Dr. Orduen Abunku, said there were 600,000 cases of HIV/AIDS in the area, while his Borno State counterpart, Dr. Salma Kolo, put the figure at 16,396, with 2,384 others suffering from tuberculosis, and 158 were leprosy patients.

The Medical Director who spoke to newsmen, yesterday, in Makurdi, said the call for establishment of more hospitals became necessary in view of the high burden of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, among others, which he said were more pronounced across Benue State.

Oyigeya lamented that the state lagged behind in the establishment of health institutions, noting that many states with lesser population of HIV/AIDS cases than Benue had more than two or three Federal Government health institutions. He said one federal hospital was not enough for the population of the state.

He said: “Benue has 4.6 million people and Edo, for instance, has 3.2 million. Whereas Edo has three federal hospitals, two teaching hospitals and a psychiatric hospital, Benue bears the heaviest disease burden in the country, apart from hepatitis, tuberculosis, among others. So we de-serve a federal infectious disease hospital.”