Expert solicits improved commitment towards HIV response, eradication
An expert in the health industry, Alabi Saleem, the project manager and secretary of the Kwara State Aids Control Agency (KWASACA), has recommended that government at all levels should take full ownership of HIV/AIDs response in the country by committing more funds to the fight against it and ensure an AIDs free society.
Saleem, who stated this in an interview with BusinessDay in Ilorin, equally charged that women and the general population should always avail themselves for screening in order to know their HIV status and dissociate themselves from activities that predisposed them to contacting it.
He explained that HIV/AIDS is an infection that is usually contacted via unprotected sex, use of sharp objects, female genital mutilation, from infected mother to unborn child, blood transmission among others.
“The State has About 200 health facilities that deliver HIV care services and they are fully functional. KWASACA has been coordinating structures for prompt response and HIV prevention in the state through so many sectors at local government and state levels,” said Saleem, while speaking on how the agency has being rendering health care service delivery and supporting the people infected in the state.
According to him, there is a need for individuals, private- public sectors to collaborate and contribute their quota towards eradicating HIV/AIDS completely in Nigeria.
“There are different control measures the agency is using to prevent HIV/AIDs in Kwara State. The strategies are usually targeted at key populations and the general population. Key populations are female sex workers and general population has to do with women, youths and others.
“We also have HIV testing services for identifying those that are positive. Screening of the general population to define those that are positive and linking them to appropriate care. For those that are negative, we ensure they don’t get positive by counselling them properly.
“Mothers that are positive will be placed on anti-retroviral therapy, drugs that reduce the load of virus in their systems and we don’t allow their unborn children infected and we give them necessary care during delivery,” Saleem said.
The secretary further stated that another area of concentration is the care support system where they cater for the affected ones by supporting them emotionally, financially and socially, to make sure that they are incorporated back in to the society.
“Prevention of mother to child HIV has also been properly mitigated for mothers that avail themselves the opportunity of accessing health-care services in health facilities.”
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin