One million HIV victims can’t access drug – NACA

Federal Government on Monday in Abuja said over one million Nigerians out of the 1.5 million persons who had been confirmed to be infected with HIV/AIDS did not have access to Anti-Retroviral Drugs.
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Prof. John Idoko, stated this during a Pre-World AIDS Day press briefing.
According to him, NACA in the past three years have received $151.6m under the Phase I Global Fund HIV grant and $228m recently approved for Phase II for the period 2013 to 2015.
He said, “World Bank credit of $225m for HIV for four years was approved by the Government of Nigeria in 2011 and a grant of N40m to support the National Call Centre for HIV and related diseases from DFID of the British Government.”
Idoko maintained that out of the confirmed 1.5 million people infected in Nigeria, only 500,000 of were presently accessing anti-retroviral drugs.
He said the number of testing sites had been increased in the country in the past three years, adding that NACA aimed to test between 20 million to 24 million persons annually in order to establish their HIV/AIDS status.
The NACA DG also said the Agency was adopting various strategies to meet the target.
He said, “Treatment is a key thing. For two to three years, treatment has been used as a portent weapon for prevention. The number of people on drugs has rising to 500,000 from 400,000 last year. About 1.5 million presently need the drug in the country.”