NACA puts Delta HIV/AIDS prevalence rate at less than 1%

Director-General of National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), John Idoko, has put the HIV/AIDs prevalence rate in Delta State at less than 1 percent.

Idoko, who made the disclosure in Asaba, the Delta State capital, during a courtesy visit to the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, also said the prevalence rate in the entire country was now less than 6 percent.

He however called on the state government to put machinery in place to access its counterpart fund, noting that there was decline in the funding from donors.

According to him, the HIV/AIDS prevalence was less than 6 percent in the country and less than 1 percent in Delta State. There was the need for the Delta State government to endeavour to access its counterpart fund because “there is a decline in the funding from donors.”

BusinessDay reports that the HIV/AIDs prevalence rate of the state as of 2012 was 4.1 percent, while that of the country was reduced from the initial 5.1 percent in 2012 to now 3.4 percent.

The state governor, who expressed joy with the reduction of HIV/AIDS in the country, especially in the state, called for strident efforts to have zero prevalence rate in the country.

He assured that a bill would be presented to the Delta State House of Assembly within the next two weeks to transform State Action Committee on Aids (SACA) to an agency.