US spends $4 billion on HIV/AIDS programme in Nigeria

18 Novembre 2017

Abuja, Nigeria, November 18 (Infosplusgabon) - The United States Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) said on Friday that it has spent over $4 billion on HIV/AIDS response programme in Nigeria since 2004.

CDC Country Director Mahesh Swaminathan said in Abuja on the sideline of a conference on “Partnering for Sustainable HIV Epidemic Control in Nigeria” that by the total number of funds spent, Nigeria was the third largest country in the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) programme.

The conference, which was organised by CDC, sought to discuss the way forward to tackle HIV and AIDS in the country.

CDC is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) aimed at promoting best practices in public health services for healthy Nigeria citizens through collaboration with the Federal Government and health partners.

Mr Swaminathan noted that the programme has contributed about 64 per cent of the total HIV investment in Nigeria, as a major recipient of PEPFAR funds.

According to him, “CDC has collaborated with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health to support sustainable, country-owned HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes to strengthen the country’s laboratory diseases surveillance. Working with nine comprehensive partners and government of Nigeria in the past five years, we scaled up HIV testing and treatment for HIV positive individuals in high burden local government areas."

He said that CDC has developed a modified prevention plan for high risk population, intervention to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and provided laboratory support for diagnosis.

"Presently, more than 720,000 people are on PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment, approximately four million people have received HIV counseling and testing services in 2017. HIV prevention messages and activities have reached more than 300,000 people identified as most-at-risk, and approximately 50,000 pregnant women received anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV,” he said.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/POL/ GABON 2017

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