Nigeria records 1,000 HIV/AIDS infections daily –NACA

 

MARCUS FATUNMOLE 16/08/2012 07:41:00

The Director General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Prof. John Idoko, said yesterday that about 1,000 new cases of HIV infections were being discovered in Nigeria daily and that the country was ready to use any globally acceptable strategy to combat the spread of the scourge. Idoko, who spoke at the Post International AIDS Society Conference meeting held in Abuja, said that the recently concluded Conference of the AIDS Society in the United States had further proved the effectiveness of contemporary drugs and models such as PrExposure and Post-exposure Prophylaxis, Combination Prevention Therapy, Tenofovir Microbicide and Placebo Gel to contain the spread of the virus globally. He said participants at the conference reported the degree of workability of those models and drugs in surveyed regions across the globe.
Odoko noted that various surveys had shown that persons who adhere strictly to the prescriptions of different drugs used for either prevention or treatment of the disease always realised the effectiveness of such drugs.
He, however, said resistance could occur when patients or users fail to follow the instructions on the use of such drugs.
Speaking on the benefits of the conference for Nigeria, Idoko observed that with Nigeria standing as the second most burdened HIV/AIDS countries in the world, after South Africa and currently recording about one thousand new infections daily, any model considered effective by the conference would be useful to the country at the moment.
Meanwhile, girl child in Nigeria, he said, is three times yet more at risk than boys.
Issues that Nigeria will likely examine on the use of PrEP, according to him, include examining the different delivery options for PrEP; use of microbicides compared to oral preparations, age of consent and ethical considerations of PrEP in adolescents, cultural issues associated with sexuality in young women.
Others are examining the different delivery options for PrEP and relationship of PrEP and HIV prevention communication with other HIV prevention and treatment efforts.
It will be noted that PrExposure or PrEP is an HIV prevention method in which people who do not have HIV take a daily pill to reduce their risk of becoming infected while other models such as Antiretroviral Treatment is the type of treatment for HIV/AIDS which does not cure the disease but help stop infected persons from becoming ill for many years while the newest model, Combination Therapy, is the act of taking two or more antiretroviral drugs at a time.