‘US has invested over $5bn to fight HIV/AIDS in Nigeria’
The United States (US) Mission Nigeria has said that the US Government has invested over $5 billion in its response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria, under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
This was disclosed in a statement on Friday by the Public Affairs Division of the US Embassy in Abuja, to mark the 2018 World AIDS day. The U.S Mission said it has recorded achievements, which show that, in 2018 PEPFAR provided life-saving HIV treatment to over 800,000 Nigerian men, women, and children living with HIV.
It noted that approximately 7.4 million Nigerians have received HIV counseling and testing services under the program adding that more than 1.6 million pregnant Nigerian women were tested for HIV and more than 1.2 million orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria received care.
“Additionally, PEPFAR supports Nigeria in the critical areas of policy development, human capacity development, and overarching health systems strengthening, including provision of state-of-the-art laboratories and pharmaceutical warehouses, enhancing Nigeria’s health systems to tackle not only HIV/AIDS, but a host of other diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, and vaccine preventable diseases,” the statement said.
This year marks the 15th anniversary since PEPFAR’s establishment in 2003, with strong bipartisan support across three U.S. Presidents and eight U.S. congresses, and working with our many partners around the globe.
“The United States has invested more than $80 billion in the global HIV/AIDS response and saved more than 17 million lives, prevented millions of new HIV infections, transformed the global HIV/AIDS response, and created the roadmap to controlling this pandemic while countries continue to contribute more and more to their response.
Reports show that many of the 53 countries supported by PEPFAR can achieve epidemic control by 2020 if they accelerate their efforts and focus resources and policies to ensure access to HIV prevention and treatment services for those most in need.
” Fifteen years ago, when PEPFAR began, HIV was a death sentence in many parts of the world. Thanks to the lifesaving efforts of PEPFAR and its partners, we have helped make the world a more secure place. Now, we have the historic opportunity to make what once seemed impossible possible – controlling and ultimately ending AIDS as a public health threat around the world,” the statement said.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja