The Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has said the Federal Government is yet to redeem her commitment to the treatment of Persons Living with AIDS in Nigeria.
NEPWHAN in a statement said Nigeria government lack of commitment in ensuring life-saving antiretroviral drugs and test kits were procured was what made the country not to be able to achieve the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals at the end of 2020.
” These goals cannot be achieved without Government’s commitment to procure adequate test kits from domestic resources so that more Nigerians can be tested, and those who test positive are placed on life- saving HIV treatment.”
The National Coordinator, NEPWHAN, Abdulkadir Ibrahim who laud the effort and commitment of
President Muhammadu Buhari for providing all resources for HIV treatment with the commitment made by Mr. President and approvals by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) said the government should not delayed any further in providing adequate treatment for persons living with HIV.
He said it is part of Government efforts to meet its co-financing and counterparts funding requirements requested by our generous donors, especially the Global Fund, which just gave Nigeria about $900 million to address HIV, TB and Malaria in the country.
Abdulkadir also said they are currently talking with the FMoH to fasttrack the release of available resources in the Ministry to procure HIV drugs and test kits to keep Nigerians living with HIV alive, and they do hope that by the end of the second week of January, approval and release would have been granted by the Minister, FMoH, Dr. Osagie Ehanire and his team to redeem Nigeria’s commitment and respect in the eyes of the international community, and to also demonstrate the importance of global solidarity and shared responsibility to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat.
Failure to meet this commitment within the stipulated time will surely propel the people living with HIV in Nigeria to advise themselves for their voices to be heard by the world. We hope we shall not be compelled to such an action once the Federal Ministry of Health do the right thing. Similarly, we are looking forward to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) to quickly update NEPWHAN and the HIV partners on the status of the procurement of antiretroviral drugs into the national HIV commodity pool.
