AS part of measures to promote malaria prevention, social moblilisation as well as checkmate the menace of malaria in Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos state and environs, Chevron Nigeria Ltd., and its senior partner, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, have deployed a Roll Back Malaria programme as a means of creating awareness and education of at risk groups.

The West Africa Commission on Drugs, WACD, has urged the Nigerian government to rethink its drug policy in the interest of Nigerians and the entire West African zone. The call was made as key findings of the Commission’s report titled “Not Just in Transit: Drugs, the State and Society in West Africa” are to be shared with the Minister of Health, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Drugs Control, and Civil Society groups.

To mark this year’s World AIDS Day 2015, the Red Ribbon Coalition, an alliance of strategic NGOs and private sector partners in Nigeria, is embarking on 4-day nationwide community outreach in various Local Government Areas to reach over 3.5 million Nigerians with HIV key messages and 7, 500 for HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) services.

Another challenge is that for people living with HIV and Tuberculosis to be going about looking for where to make payment, is a high risk. At the bank, they will ask you what are you paying for, and when you tell them, they will not treat you very cordial. In an idle situation, many of these people on TB treatment should not be moving about.

Despite the relatively high level of awareness about HIV/AIDS, Nigeria may still be far from achieving zero new infections, zero deaths from AIDS – related illnesses and zero discrimination. Almost four decades after the HIV/AIDS pandemic hit the world, stigma and discrimination abound. Current statistics show that even though millions are in need of HIV treatment, only 500,000 are on treatment.