With HIV/Aids ravaging millions of children and women, Caritas International in collaboration with UNAIDS and the United States President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR) during a regional consultation in Abuja said the engagement of Faith Based Organisations (FBO’s) must be strengthened in curbing the epidemic. ENE OSANG reports
Stakeholders have noted the reduction in the care for people with HIV/AIDs in the African region particularly infants and mothers.
Speaking at the regional consultation forum held in Abuja, on “Early Diagnosis and Treatment for HIV-positive Children Strengthening Engagement of Faith Based Organisations’’, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja John Cardinal Onaiyekan, called on government and all stakeholders not to relax in the fight against the once dreaded disease.
According to Cardinal Onaiyekan, ‘’the disease is still existing and killing millions of children even though there is an improved possibility of treatment through Anti-Retroviral drugs.’’
Onaiyekan therefore urged government to insist on prevention of the disease, stressing the importance of early diagnosis for children who are already infected as it is now spreading fast and becoming pandemic.
He expressed worry that many pregnant women do not have access to the anti-retroviral drugs, saying this is the reason many children are now infected.
“We keep hearing that there are ART drugs to help reduce the ailment but the percentage of Nigerians who have access to the drugs is very low.
“There is no reason why a child should be born with HIV. How many pregnant women have the possibility of drugs that help prevent transmission of aids from mother to baby?
“Government will always say we have treatment for 40,000 people but what is 40,000 compared to millions of affected people? God is merciful to us and not allowing HIV to flog us as it should because many Nigerians are positive but God is holding them up,’’ he said.
The Archbishop called on government to increase collaboration with FBO’s, adding also that an improve inter-religious cooperation will go a long way if the disease must be effectively controlled and eliminated.
He noted that traditional means of curing sickness which was once discarded is now been considered, saying FBO’s have a role by right since they deal with the spiritual.
“In the African tradition, the healer always invokes spiritual powers to sustain his effort and because of this, they have been called witch doctors. Some recent trends in medical practice seem to be casting now a fresh look on some such previously discharged methods,’’ he noted.
Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole who was represented at the forum by the Director General of NACA Dr. Sani Aliyu, said Nigeria accounts for 30% of the global burden o pediatric HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Aliyu disclosed that of the estimated 380,000 children living with HIV in Nigeria only 42,000 (20.7%) have access to ART.
He however said efforts have been made to provide access to quality care for the population if children living with HIV/AIDS.
“Alongside our partners we have put in a tremendous amount of work that is properly reflected by the outcomes especially in the case of children.
“Over 80% of our comprehensive treatment centres are offering pediatric ART services. We have revised our approach to training of health workers to improve efficiency and maximise the number of health workers trained.
‘’We are implementing the entirely indigenous clinical mentoring meetings that has exposed approximately 64% of our secondary level health facilities to focused high quality pediatrics HIV training,’’ he assured.
Earlier, the National Director, Caritas Nigeria Rev. Fr. Everistus Bassey, said Nigeria still have a long way to go in terms of care for children born with HIV as only about 15% of children with HIV have access to anti-retroviral care.
Rev. Fr. Bassey noted that there are poor levels of conducting virological tests on infants within two months of their birth
“I know that since our government adopted the strategy of scaling up prevention of mother to child, this has brought down the number of infants born with HIV. Government has gone ahead to establish 23 early infant diagnostic centres yet when we look at the progress that has taken place in other countries, we see that Nigeria has only about a 19% reduction in new infections when others go as high as 40 or 50%,’’ he lamented.
He urged for a government and faith based communities’ collaboration to build a better health system in the region particularly in Nigeria.
The Deputy Executive Director UNAIDS and Assistant Secretary General of UN Dr. Luiz Loures, said the best way to deal with the challenge of treatment of children with HIV is through FBO’s, saying they reach out more to people than government and have more compassion.
Chief Strategy Officer at PEPFAR Mrs. Sandra Thurman, also called for better engagement of FBO’s in tackling HIV in children saying they have been providing services to people with HIV before government came in.
She assured that PEPFAR is committed to ending mother to child HIV transmission.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Mission in Abuja Mr. David Young, noted that 1.8 million children were diagnosed with HIV and 80% of these children are from Africa. He assured of the US support in ending the epidemic.
However, Dr. Martina Pen of the Pediatric Focal Point Department of World Health Organisation (WHO) said five million children have died of HIV since the beginning of the epidemic due to the lack of early prevention.
I know that since our government adopted the strategy of scaling up prevention of mother to child, this has brought down the number of infants born with HIV. Government has gone ahead to establish 23 early infant diagnostic centres yet when we look at the progress that has taken place in other countries, we see that Nigeria has only about a 19 per cent reduction in new infections when others go as high as 40 or 50 per cent
