The Chairman, Bauchi State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Leprosy And Malaria, BACATMA, Dr Muhammad Alkali, has disclosed that some HIV positive couples have given birth to 72 negative and healthy babies in the state.
Speaking at a news conference to mark the 2018 World AIDS Day celebration in Bauchi on Sunday, he said about 156 HIV positive couples in the state had overcome the infection in the womb with medical interventions.
According to him, since the establishment of the agency in 2008, it has organised and supported arranged marriages of 156 couples resulting in the delivery of 72 babies tested negative.
Alkali disclosed that the agency has also procured and distributed 120,000 units of HIV rapid test kits to 323 health facilities to strengthen prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus adding that the agency was supporting HIV/AIDS victims with food items to encourage them.
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In his own comments, the state Chairman of Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Usman Abubakar, thanked the agency for helping to organise the marriage of couples living with HIV/AIDS in the state.
He said the state government had spent about N3.8 million on the project by paying between N20,000 and N30,000 as bride price for each couple who got married during the period.
