THE National AIDS, STIs Control Programme of Federal Ministry of Health (NASCP), has, through the support of Global Fund (GF), approved the scale up of over eight hundred and sixty-one (861) sites for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) towards the prevention of transmission to newborn babies in Plateau State.
The State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Cletus Bako Shurkuk, disclosed this recently at the press briefing on the occasion marking 2023 World AIDS Day, held at the conference hall of the Ministry of Health at JD Gomwalk Secretariat, Jos, the Plateau State capital.
The commissioner said, “the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set aside every 1st December as WORLD AIDS DAY” since 1988 (about 35 years). The first ever international day for global health in which United Nation Agencies, government and Civil Society Organisations joined to campaign around specific themes related to HIV.
“To this end, National AIDS, STIs Control Programme of Federal Ministry of Health (NASCP) through the support of Global Fund (GF) scaled up Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in all the states of the Federation with 861 sites in Plateau State towards prevention of HIV transmission to all newborn babies with an overall approach of “Finding all, Testing all, Treating all and Reporting all pregnant mothers.
“In line with this year’s theme: ” Let Communities Lead”, NASCP supported the training of twenty (20) Community Mobilizers per LGAs to effectively drive in demand creation to all pregnant women of which Plateau State is at the verge of concluding her training. Global Fund (GF), through NASCP is distributing dual test kits for HIV/Syphilis to all the states”, he disclosed.
Shurkuk expressed confidence that Plateau State was one of the states that have attained HIV treatment saturation of having 49,539 people currently on treatment, but over 95% of the clients were virally suppressed which was a giant stride, hence the need to bridge the unmet treatment gap amongst the Paediatric Sub-Population and the PMTCT subpopulation.
Thereafter, the following activities unfolded the following day: An awareness walk starting from CBN Garden to the APIN Office in JUTH Old site, Jos, where Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) like WHO, CISHAN, NEPWHAN, APYN, ASHWAN, PLASCHEMA, HMB, SPHCB, NMA, WHO, APHPN, SFH, APIN, KP Secretariat, Nigerian Red Cross and SMOH were in attendance. They delivered their goodwill messages respectively.
Delivering her speech at the event, the Acting Executive Director of Plateau State AIDS Control Agency (PLACA), Mrs. Martha Swomen, emphasised on the theme saying, “putting communities on the driver’s seat of HIV response in Nigeria with support from the Community leaders, religious leaders and traditional leaders will not only ensure ownership, but increase domestic funding and sustainability of the HIV/AIDS response at all levels.
Meanwhile, the WAD Planning Committee Chairman, Rev. Chris Damcher, said that HIV among other illnesses was the easiest to manage because it was not a killer disease like it used to be, hence the need for communities to take lead in fighting the spread of HIV.
