Bolanle Akanji
Moderator
The Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN) claims that it has placed no fewer than 28,000 persons living with HIV and AIDS on treatment this year.
The Chief Executive Officer of IHVN, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that the institute also conducted HIV tests for more than 200,000 pregnant women.
``Out of the tested pregnant women, about 9,000 were found to be HIV-positive. We placed them on treatment to prevention the transmission of the virus to their unborn babies.
``This means that we have at least attempted to save a minimum of 9,000 babies from having HIV in 2013; the IHVN is scaling up efforts in the Prevention of Mother–To-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme
``Our funding agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gave us a directive to step up efforts in certain states; we are able to add on to the number of sites that we support,’’ he said.
Dakum said that the institute also added about 600 new sites across the federation through which it was supporting HIV and AIDS treatment as well as the PMTCT programme and is training health workers on how to care for people living with HIV and AIDS.
According to Dakum, one of the challenges facing the institute is the bad infrastructure in primary health care centres for the provision of PMTCT services.
``Primary health care centres must work and for them to work effectively, they must have good structures.
``The centres should have buildings that are conducive to human habitation; buildings where patients will go in and find seats before obtaining appropriate health care services,’’ he said.
Dakum urged the government to provide quality health care delivery for the citizens.
He acknowledged the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan in intensifying Nigeria’s commitment in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
The Chief Executive Officer of IHVN, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that the institute also conducted HIV tests for more than 200,000 pregnant women.
``Out of the tested pregnant women, about 9,000 were found to be HIV-positive. We placed them on treatment to prevention the transmission of the virus to their unborn babies.
``This means that we have at least attempted to save a minimum of 9,000 babies from having HIV in 2013; the IHVN is scaling up efforts in the Prevention of Mother–To-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme
``Our funding agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), gave us a directive to step up efforts in certain states; we are able to add on to the number of sites that we support,’’ he said.
Dakum said that the institute also added about 600 new sites across the federation through which it was supporting HIV and AIDS treatment as well as the PMTCT programme and is training health workers on how to care for people living with HIV and AIDS.
According to Dakum, one of the challenges facing the institute is the bad infrastructure in primary health care centres for the provision of PMTCT services.
``Primary health care centres must work and for them to work effectively, they must have good structures.
``The centres should have buildings that are conducive to human habitation; buildings where patients will go in and find seats before obtaining appropriate health care services,’’ he said.
Dakum urged the government to provide quality health care delivery for the citizens.
He acknowledged the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan in intensifying Nigeria’s commitment in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
