NoBlood

HIV/Aids Figures May Increase, Says Osotimehin

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
January 19, 2004
Posted to the web January 19, 2004

By Juliana Taiwo
Abuja

Chairman of National Committee on AIDS (NACA), Professor Babatunde Osotimehin has said the figures of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country that would be released next month will be higher than the 5.8 per cent recorded for 2001.

Osotimehin disclosed yesterday at the Gede AIDS and Infectious Diseases Research Institute (GAIDRI) training, that the change in figure was as a result of the fact that Nigerians were yet to come to the reality of the deadly disease.

He said there were very powerful cynics in the system that do not believe in the reality of the dreaded disease. He also expressed fears that the expected figure would destroy everything the country, individuals, NGOs and civil societies have worked for to reduce the impact of the pandemic.

"This is going to be the beginning of social crisis because by next year, 2005, if not addressed the country would have 400,000 new cases yearly", Osotimehin said.

He also expressed regrets that most state governors have not shown the necessary support for the fight against the disease. "If we do it all at the federal level and nothing is done at the state and local levels, we will lose the war. We have to mobilize uniformly to win the war", he said.

While thanking GAIDRI for going a step further by embarking on a research programme that would provide better medication to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and its aim of providing anti-retroviral drugs at affordable rates to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), Osotimehin also raised alarmed over many private centres which do not screen blood before transfusing on patients. The dangerous trend, he said, has led to increase in more AIDS victims through transfusion.

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