DIRECTOR General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Temitope llori has said that HIV infection in children remains a challenge to Nigeria meeting the target of elimination HIV as a public health threat come 2030.
Dr llori said that Nigeria still top the charts on global mortality and child transmission of HIV and AIDS because stigma and discrimination remains one of the major drivers of paediatric HIVand AIDS, and even the mother-to child infection.
According to her, “many times when the mothers are asked to be tested for HIV, they run away because they are afraid to know their status. And for those that know their status, they decline medication because they don’t want to be seen taking HIV medications.
“And for those children that are positive, they are lost. They don’t know how to task their children on drugs because they don’t want the children to be discriminated against in schools and other places.
Sometimes the grandmother is discriminating or the husband is discriminating or even the other co-workers.”
Dr llori, while calling on Nigerians to embrace those living with HIV/AIDS, said pregnant should avoid delivering at home but to access antenatal care in a place with skilled birth attendants.
He stated that most of the transmission of HIV infections to children occurs during pregnancy and even at delivery.
“So, if a mother knows her status, she can start medications. And when she uses medications, her viral load is so suppressed that she is almost assumed to be negative. So, she cannot even transmit the infection to her unborn child.
“And also, when the child is born, we have medications that we give them even before we know their status. This is to make them remain negative. So, if they deliver in the skilled centres like the hospital facilities where they can access all this care, then definitely their children will be negative. We have many women, who are positive for HIV, but they’ve delivered healthy children who are negative and they are living healthy,” she declared.
Dr Ilori declared that the Federal Government is working on a sustainability road map to ensure that beyond 2030 HIV, the national HIV response is sustained.
She added, “we have the programmatic phases, we have the financial phases.
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We are making advocacy to mobilise resources, domestic resources, so that we can take ownership of the national response.”
She said Nigeria is the sole country in the West Africa region starting the clinical trials on HIV vaccines and anchored by Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria, in partnership with other countries across the continent to make sure that it works very well with Nigerians.
She said self-test kits are available in major pharmaceutical companies and encouraged Nigerians to buy these self-test kits just like the same way you buy test kits to do pregnancy tests or malaria tests.
“We encourage people because this is a good innovation. People can do their HIV testing by themselves in their homes and know their status.
“So, my message is to take the right path, know your status. When we say right this time around, we mean stop discrimination, stop stigma.
“Embrace people with HIV AIDS. You cannot contract it by hugging them, by being in the same office or in the same school with them. You cannot contract it by shaking hands with them.
“Let’s embrace them so that they can also come out and access care. They are safe. They do not transmit the infection to other people.
“So let’s also know our status so that we can access the necessary care. And, of course, let’s ensure that we encourage our mothers, our pregnant women to visit antenatal care, to go for antenatal care, to get tested for HIV, to remain on treatment if they have to be on treatment so that we can have an AIDS-free generation going forward.”
Speaking in the same vein, Executive Secretary, Oyo State Agency for The Control of AIDS, Dr Lanre Abass, said scientific advances made in HIV are sufficient to help put an end to HIV as a public health threat.
According to him, these advancements in HIV research have helped in various aspects of management of people dealing with HIV.
“One of them is the fact that a pregnant woman living with HIV with adherence to ARV can give birth successfully to an HIV-neg-ative child.
“In the past, PLHIV used to take so many tablets.
Now, we have fewer tablets being taken per day by people who do have HIV. In fact, there is an injection now that would be taken once in three months, once in six months, or even once in a year. These are advancement.
“Now we have seen quite a normal of people living with HIV who had reached what we call an undetectable level of HIV and for like 18 months now that they have not been taking drugs and they still remain negative, which means a cure is around the corner.
“In the area of PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis, studies have shown that even if I’m negative and my wife is positive, I can take some interventions that will make me remain negative, despite the fact that I’m having an intercourse with my wife.”
Dr Abass, however, said despite these advancements, ending HIV as a public health threat globally by 2030 may be a mirage.
According to him, many countries, including Rwanda have not reached that level of HIV control that we can say that the global elimination of HIV as a public health threat is achievable by 2030.
“Even in Nigeria, we have different percentages of saturation across the states i.e. the percentage of people reached with test, treatment and other HIV treatment services.
“Even though in Nigeria we say we are about 85% saturation, the figures will not be the same across the states.
“Also, the remaining 15% of the estimated number of people living with the HIV virus can easily spread it to other people without getting them tested and placing them on ARV.”
Programme Manager for OYOSACA, Dr Olukayode Ogunkunle, said incidence of new HIV cases is reduc-ing, putting the number of people living with HIV in Oyo state at 58,402.
He, however, said getting people to test for HIV is still a challenge, adding that without the test, treatment cannot commence to ensure they don’t spread the virus to other people.
National Coordinator of the National AIDS and STI
Control Programme at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Adebobola
Basorun,
stressed that Nigerians should treat themselves properly for sexually transmitted infections rather than resort to self-medita-tion to prevent STI from being an entry point for HIV.
He declared that HIV can also predispose one to contracting other sexually transmitted infections as it can lower the body’s immunity against other infections and create easy entries for germs that cause different sexually transmitted infections through the skin.
Senior programme officer for Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), Mr James Atusue, assured of safe spaces for free HIV treatment and support for people living with HIV in Nigeria.
Mr Atusue, however, said the distance of these facilities from people in the rural areas is still a challenge.
He also added that long waiting hours at government facilities is becoming a problem because there are not enough personnel.
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