By VICTORIA OJEME

Nigeria has again joined the rest of the world to herald the “World AIDS Day” – a day dedicated to raising awareness and highlighting achievements in the fight against the global pandemic.

Activities to commemorate the Day, included  stock-taking on the Nigerian response, remembrance of those lost to AIDS and related diseases and plans for the future, under the theme: “Taking Charge; Get A HIV Test.”

Giving an insight, Director General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA,  Professor John Idoko, said  there has been decline in the prevalence rate in “ both children and adults but much more in children, from 2.2 million in 2008 to 1.9 million in adults compared to 24 percent in children from 2009 to 2011.

“It will be impossible to lay the foundation for the end of the pandemic without dramatically greater progress in reducing new infections among adults and children.

*Professor John Idoko.

“Globally, almost 10 million people are on ART in low and middle income countries. Nigeria has an ANC prevalence of 4.1 percent  and a population prevalence of 3.4 percent.

“There are 3.5 million persons living with HIV, out which 1.5 million are in need of treatment. This number will go up with the adaption of the new WHO guidelines on ART. Current NARHS data indicates reduction of HIV prevalence in many of the 12+1 States,”Idoko added.

One of the most significant achievements of Nigeria’s national response to checking the spread of the diseases is the visible role of HIV/AIDS prevention and cure focused Non-Governmental Organisations in complimenting  management oversight as well as donor  engagement in order to  enhance the integrity and perception of how Nigeria manages donor assistance in arresting the spread of the HIV pandemic.

The US President’s Emergency Funds for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR,  an important intervention fund, since 2004, has been supporting the provision of comprehensive HIV prevention, care and treatment services in Nigeria.

Strategies put in place to ensure the achievement of its objectives include   engaging with indigenous organizations in supported countries as part of its strategy to reach more people with lifesaving services and in 2008 it funded a local NGO, AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria, APIN, the first local entity to receive funding for comprehensive care and treatment services in Nigeria through the Centre for Disease Control, CDC, Nigeria to provide these services.

The Chief Executive Officer , APIN, in a chat with Health & Living said the organization,  has  “contributed to the achievement of PEPFAR II goals in Nigeria by supporting the provision of HIV services at 55 comprehensive ART sites, 76 PMTCT sites and 43 DOTS centres.

It also worked with 28 Community Based Organisations to provide care and treatment to HIV infected clients and their families. During the five year project; it reached over 800,000 individuals with counselling and testing so they can know their HIV status and provided anti- retroviral drugs to over 75,000 individuals. With the funding,  it established state-of-the-art laboratories in over 50 hospitals and plays a major role in HIV laboratory support in Nigeria.

It supports 82 percent of the viral load facilities and 75 percent of the laboratories with drug resistance monitoring capability in the country.  The project trained 3,247 health care workers to provide high quality HIV services in the country.

“Systems established to achieve these include an electronic patient record management system to allow health care workers  access all of the clients’ care history even when they transfer from one hospital to another, collaboration with community based organizations to create awareness and demand for HIV services and reach orphans and vulnerable children within the communities with care.  Strong partnership with government and other institution owners was also singled out as a critical strategy for successful project implementation” he added.

APIN’s Director of laboratory services, Dr Jay Osi-Samuel said of  lessons learned during project implementation, “the project model of training hospital staff rather than posting APIN staff to work on site has increased the pool of qualified health care workers across all supported facilities and states and is a strategy for sustainability of HIV services in the country.

He described infrastructure development at supported facilities as one of the critical factors for successful project implementation as most health facilities suffered from chronic under investment at the beginning of the project.