By Ahmad Umar
Gombe (Nigeria) – Project Manager, Gombe State Agency for the Control of AIDS, in northeast of the country, Dr. Suraj Abdulkarim, says the agency has recorded reduction in the prevalence of HIV in the state, in 2017.
Dr. Abdulkarim who disclosed this while speaking with Journalists in Gombe on Sunday, said there was a decrease from 3.4 to 3.2, but that the reduction would have been more, if the agency had received adequate support, particularly in the area of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
Dr. Abdulkarim said nothing much had happened in the last one year, due to the significant reduction in funding, following the withdrawal of major donors from the fight against HIV.
He therefore solicited for additional support, particularly from both state and local governments to increase funding, to strategically channel it to funding the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of the disease.
“There was yet to be any significant funding to fill the gap created by the exit of the major donors and World Bank alone had every year funded the fight against HIV/AIDS with 100 million naira, coupled with significant funding from domestic contributors.
“Last year major donors withdrew their support, while allocations from the federation account and domestic funding were not enough to bridge the gap, based on the competing demands ,of the agency.
The Project Manager of the agency, Dr. Suraj Abdulkarim said because of low funding, the agency was not able to make much progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the state.
“Some of the effects of the low funding arising from withdrawals by major donors has resulted in lack of training for health workers, which has affected their productivity in providing services at the grassroots, it was one of the serious challenges the agency faced in the last one year.
According to the Project Manager, it is the desire of the agency to bring down the prevalence of HIV to zero level.
He said if the agency had received enough support, it would have gone down to the grassroots, targeting pregnant women and make them to go for HIV screening and then placed them on treatment.
By so doing, he said, the drop would have been more than what was recorded last year.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2017/12/05/news/2017-world-aids-day-uphold-the-right-to-health-for-all-to-end-aids-by-2030-unfpa-calls/
