The National AIDS Control Agency (NACA) on Wednesday lamented that Ogun State, despite efforts to reduce the spread of HIV, has a higher prevalence of 1.6% compared to the national average of 1.4%.

The Director General of the Agency, Mrs. Temitope Ilori, said this during an advocacy visit focused on achieving an AIDS-free generation and building a sustainable response to HIV in Ogun State.

Ilori, who was represented by James Anenih, director of the agency’s Community Prevention and Care Services, alongside other team members, was received by State Health Commissioner Tomi Coker on Wednesday , and other relevant health stakeholders in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

She pointed out that despite progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), Nigeria still faces a formidable challenge in preventing transmission, with pediatric HIV coverage still falling short of the target. target of 95%, or 33%.

According to her, the UNAIDS 2023 report shows that around 140,000 children aged 0-14 are living with HIV, with 22,000 new infections and 15,000 AIDS-related deaths each year.

Ilori stressed that more work is needed to ensure that no child in Ogun is born with HIV, even as she expressed gratitude to the state government for providing antiretroviral therapy in selected health facilities .

She said: “While recognizing the excellent work done by Your Excellency in modernizing and equipping selected health facilities to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) from 22 sites in 2019 to 28 sites in 2023, as well as the implementation one-stop-shop service. and community-based ART (CART) in Ogun East and Ogun West, it is imperative to note that Ogun State has an HIV prevalence higher than the national average of 1.4% and the South West average of 1.4%. 2%. There is an urgent need to stop and reverse the state’s prevalence from its current level of 1.6%.

The Director assured that the Federal Government was actively working to create an enabling environment to achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public health problem by 2030.

Nonetheless, Ilori urged all stakeholders to partner with the agency in creating a comprehensive list of HIV-positive children, saying this is crucial to accelerate the country’s pediatric ART program.

In response, State Health Commissioner Tomi Coker admitted that HIV prevalence in the state is critical and commended NACA for visiting and inaugurating a PMTCT and pediatric ART committee comprising 18 men.

She explained that the committee would oversee the care of HIV-positive pregnant women to ensure they do not have enough virus to infect their unborn children and would place HIV-positive children on treatment to prevent spread.

The commissioner said: “In particular, we have seen that today more and more children are being born with HIV. We want to capture them to reduce mother-to-child transmission, and we hope that by 2030 there could be an HIV-free generation.

“We would supervise the treatment of pregnant women to make sure they have viral suppression and don’t have enough virus to pass on to their children.

“We would also test the children of people who we know are HIV positive to ensure we identify them and get them on treatment as quickly as possible. »