The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) says it is actively working with the national assembly to secure increased government investment for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes in Nigeria.
Echey Ijezie, AHF country programme director, announced the plan on Thursday during an event in Abuja to mark the upcoming World AIDS Day on December 1.
Ijezie explained that the collaboration with the health committees of the national assembly is a direct response to a significant decline in international aid.
He cited the temporary suspension of foreign assistance earlier in the year, which disrupted major global health initiatives like the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — a key funding source for HIV treatment in Nigeria and other developing nations.
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“We are making assembly health committees to understand the need for adequate funding if the quest to prevent the spread of the disease is to be met at the targeted time,” Ijezie said.
“We have made several presentations to the committees in the past couple of months and we are also working together with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) the National AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and STIs Control Programme (NASCP), Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NEPWHAN), the Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ASHWAN) and the media to ensure that the awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention is sustained in the interest of Nigeria.”
On his part, Abdulkadir Ibrahim, national coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/Aids in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), highlighted that stigma and discrimination remain significant barriers to progress.
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“There can be no enduring success if the affected are still regarded as outcasts in communities such that they are not able to access what those without the disease are accessing,” he said.
“We believe HIV/AIDS should be treated like other diseases, especially for the fact that those who are not infected are still affected in some ways,” Ibrahim said, while advocating for local manufacturing of drugs for carriers of the disease in order to minimise the cost of importing the drugs and the inconvenience of the shortage of foreign aid.”
Steve Aborisade, AHF’s head of media and marketing, announced that this year’s World AIDS Day event will be held in Keffi, Nasarawa state.
The event will feature health awareness talks for students and the public, with participation from the Red Cross Club, civil society organizations, and community-based groups.
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World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1 since 1988, is dedicated to raising awareness about the AIDS pandemic and mourning those who have died from the disease.
