HIV/AIDS: Int’l organisation calls for collaboration to curtail spread

HEARTLAND Alliance International (HAI) says only collaboration with the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Ministry of Health, National Agency on Control of AIDS, (NACA) will curtail the spread in the country.

HAI is the global arm of Heartland Alliance, a family of organisations leading anti-poverty and social justice work in Chicago since 1888.

Mr Batholomew Ochonye, the organisation’s Country Director, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that such collaboration was imperative to ensure that no one was left behind in HIV response.

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According to Ochonye, there can be no meaningful progress if anyone is left out in the provision of prevention and treatment services.

“HIV has the potential to spread fast if untreated and so, we work closely with the Ministry of Health, NACA and other stakeholders with support from USAID.”

The country director, who expressed optimism in achieving HIV free community, called for funding for intervention, available to people with vulnerability.

He said minority groups of all kinds, including sex workers and people who suffer social exclusions due culture and religion, are at high risk.

Ochonye restated calls for life-saving HIV prevention and care for people who use drugs as well as men who have sex with men to enable them to achieve viral suppression.

He said the imperatives of taking care of prison inmates by providing quality HIV prevention commodities for those living with HIV/AIDS.

Ochonye, however, called for support and encouragement for NGOs as well as donors and development partners for improved medication to ensure an end to the HIV epidemic by 2030.