Stakeholders canvass N20b funding to treat HIV/AIDS patients

Stakeholders at a media screening of “keep the promise” to AIDS video campaign by Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, have appealed to the government to increase public sector funding for HIV.

They said that it takes just N20 billion to put 50 per cent of People Living with HIV on yearly treatment.

Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), who spoke yesterday in Abuja, noted that devoting funds for the treatment of persons living with HIV/AIDS by the Federal Government is not a charity but a right as HIV patients are entitled to live happily and make needed contributions to national growth and development.

Also, while the Country Director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Dr. Echey Ijezie, stressed the need for state governments to join in the efforts and fund AIDS in their respective states, Publisher of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi, urged the media to design a national healthcare reporting objective that will help the HIV care-giving community realise the current national objective of increasing public sector funding for HIV treatment.