ENUGU – (FIC Enugu Report) – The Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has said that he would remove all barriers to the control of HIV/AIDS in Enugu State. He made this known at the Enugu State Government House on Thursday October 31, 2019.
The disclosure which was made during the official launch of the Anti – Retroviral Therapy (ART) surge response championed by Caritas Nigeria and sponsored by the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recalled the insightful engagement during the courtsey call embarked upon the previous day.
He observed that it was an occasion to share thoughts on HIV prevalence and burden in Enugu State as well as reflect on the continued synergy between the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention through the implementing partner which is the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (Caritas Nigeria). The other partner mentioned in the programme was the Enugu State Government in the HIV Care Treatment Programme spanning HIV testing diagnostic treatment, health facility upgrade, technical assistance, adequate staffing and capacity building for staff.
“Enugu State is desirous to expand the HIV Anti-retroviral Therapy for enhancing case-finding through the provision of more rapid HIV test kits to enable new cases to benefit from the programme supported by the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. We will also remove all barriers, and I mean finance, stigmatisation and discrimination to HIV prevention and treatment services,” he said.
On his part, the United States Consul-General, Claire Pierangelo mentioned that the U.S Government’s commitment to Nigeria is to help Nigeria address many of its health problems, strengthen the health sector of Nigeria and help to guarantee that its young generations are able to live happy, long and most importantly productive lives.
Also speaking, the Director for CDC in Nigeria, Mahesh Swaminathan (Dr) averted that there is a need for the treatment of people living with HIV/ AIDS because with the treatment, they could live long healthy lives. He implied that they can as well have children, work and build their families.
“If we are able to control HIV now, it will prevent us from potentially having many more patients who need doctors’ treatment tomorrow,” he opined.
