Benue State Government said it is aiming at achieving zero prevalence of HIV/AIDS when the 2021 Annual Operational Plan for the State Health Sector Response is fully implemented.
Director Public Health, at the State Ministry of Health and Human Services, Dr. Terna Kur, stated this at the review of 2020 Annual Operational Plan, (AOP), and the development of the 2021 AOP for Health Sector Response in the state which is being supported by Global Funds in collaboration with FHI-360, Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative, (AHNi) and Benue State Government held in Otukpo.
Represented by the Deputy Director Public Health in the Ministry, Terver Tule, Kur said significant improvement was made in the 2020 Annual Operational Plan that when replicated in the current plan the state would attain United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and National Aids and Impact Survey (NAIS), target of 95 95 95 which is total epidemic control.
According to him the state was close to the target pointing out that already 93 percent have known their HIV/AIDS status, 93 percent are also on effective Anti-retroviral drugs treatment, while 82 percent have viral load suppression as at June 2020.
He said the state dropped from 10 percent prevalence rate to 4.9 and has also implemented successfully, 40 out of its 62 activities representing 64.5 percent implementation rate in the outgoing AOP despite the COVID-19 lockdown.
“We are hoping that with the 2021 AOP we will do better”, he stated.
Dr. Kur also said about 188,023 persons in the state were already on treatment saying “We can only achieve this if the citizens are willing to come out to test and agree to be on treatment, then Benue will attain zero transmission in the next phase”, Kur explained.
He attributed the feat to the enabling environment provided by the government saying its arms are open to more partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
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Also Speaking, Coordinator HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Control Programme SASCAP, Gabriel Anefu, explained that the programme employed strategies for continuous service delivery to patients during lockdown occasioned by COVID-19.
He named strategies like multi-months dispensing of the drugs saying “we give the drugs to clients 3 months, 4 months, and some 6 months. We also brought community model where we have some places, some pharmacies, patent vendors identified within community where we positioned this anti-retroval drugs to make clients access them within community, so that they don’t have to come to facility,” he added.
Doctor Anefu lamented that Benue was contributing 16% of new infections for babies that are born by HIV/AIDS infected mothers.
He commended AHNi for supporting eight comprehensive sites in the state and 58 Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission PMCT sites as Catch Up Plan.
According to him, the Comprehensive sites which provide HIV testing services, Treatment care, support PMCT and laboratory services are found at Madonna Hospital, General Hospitals in Gboko, Katsina Ala, Tse-agberagba, Lessel and Oju as well as Comprehensive Health Center Adi and Saint Elizabeth Hospital Vandeikya.
The State Coordinator of SASCAP expressed satisfaction with partners and State Government in implementation of the programme.
He said “AHNi through Global Funds has done excellently well and together with Pifer who is supporting APIN Public Health Initiative to implement HIV AIDS programme in the state.”
In their separate speech, HIV AIDS Prevention Officer With Benue State Aids Control Agency BENSACA, Regina Ameh, and Chairman Nigerian Medical Association, Samuel Otene, promised to work in collaborative manner to bring down HIV/AIDS prevalence in the state.
