NATIONAL Coordinator of Journalists’ Alliance For Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Sola Ogundipe, wants federal and state governments to step up fight against spread of the disease in 2016.

Voicing dissatisfaction with poor handling of mother-to-child transmission, he regretted that fresh cases have eroded previous gains, urging government to prioritise prevention.

He said it is worrisome that not less than 60,000 new infections are recorded among children in the country yearly.
Ogundipe said prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) interventions in Nigeria should be guided by the new UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS) target of 90:90:90, which seeks to ensure 90 per cent of the global population is tested for HIV; 90 per cent of those who tested positive have access to treatment; and 90 per cent are virally suppressed.

“Since HIV is not a stand alone goal under SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), there is the need to sustain its visibility by prioritising interventions towards meeting related goals and targets, using the broader Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) scheme,” he said.

He called for the elimination of barriers preventing journalists from accessing relevant information on the disease from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and State Agencies for the Control of AIDS (SACA).

Ogundipe noted that had government taken HIV/AIDS as seriously as it combated Ebola Virus Disease, the dream of an HIV/AIDS country “would have long been achieved,” adding: “I hope 2016 would be different in the history of the disease.”