By Asmau Ahmad
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the Federal Government would need $1 dollars annually to effectively respond to HIV/AIDS programmes in the country.
The Country Director and UNAIDS Local Point Officer for ECOWAS, Dr. Bilali Camara, stated this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Dr. Camara, however commended the Federal Government for its determined efforts at ending the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country by the year 2030.
He, however, disclosed that of the needed one billion dollars for the response, the UN and other partners had provided 50 per cent of the money.
“We need the other half the government has promised to put into this process to make it a reality; if we do that, I am quite sure we will make a difference,” Camara said.
He attributed the optimism to the fact that Nigeria had developed and keyed into robust HIV/AIDS responses that would lead to ending the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country by 2030.
He said: “Facts speak abundantly of this possibility when we analyse programmatic progress accomplished during the past four years from 2012 to 2015. Within the period, Nigeria had tested more than 21 million adults for HIV and who have each received their results.
“This represents an average of 5.25 million annually and the trend is increasing when the year 2012 is compared with year 2015.”
Camara also explained that through the success, 59 per cent of all Nigerians living with HIV were able to verify their status by the end of year 2015.
He said to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Nigeria AIDS programmes had counselled and tested close to nine million pregnant women for HIV and also received their results.
Dr. Camara added that another recorded outstanding success was the National Primary Health Care Development Agency- organised HIV testing among pregnant women during the Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) week.
The UNAIDS Country Director urged the Federal Government to urgently pay the required counterpart funding for the completion of the response process at different levels.
He, however, noted that the private sector and state governments could also make contributions to bridge the funding gap.
He commended state governments for the designed comprehensive HIV/AID response sustainability plan aimed at pushing and halting the spread of the disease by 2030.
He explained that the agency planned to do a comparative analysis of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as the number of people on treatment with the number of pregnant women who were HIV positive.
