A Non-Governmental Organisation known as Caritas Nigeria has vowed to reduce the epidemic spread of the Human Immuno Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in Abia, Enugu and Imo states.
The executive secretary/chief executive officer of the organisation, Rev. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, announced this during the official launching of the Accelerated Control of HIV, epidemic and sustainable solution project (Access project) in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
He explained that the Access project is targeted at reaching all the people infected with HIV with the sole aim of giving free diagnosis and treatment to them.
Obodoechina, further revealed that his organization has the mandate of the American Centre for Disease
Control and prevention to undertake the projects for five years in the states under review.
He said, “We have a grant from the American government and its people to obtain services in Abia State and other parts of South East Nigeria with a view to achieving epidemic control against HIV/AIDS and today we are in Abia collaborating with the state and other sectors to see how we could engage with them in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
“The Government of Nigeria and Abia State should also rise up because of their responsibility to ensure that their citizens are healthy. That’s the essence of government.
“Government is established to do for the people what they can’t do for themselves. That is the content of the social contract.
The project director in Abia State, Dr Amana Effiong, said the project is particularly targeted at people living with HIV/AIDS in some parts of the state who were not reached by the previous exercise of the organisation known as the 4GATES project.
He maintained that whereas some states in the South East have achieved epidemic control of the HIV disease, Abia State was still lagging behind because of some historical factors.
According to him, “Abia is still one of the states with the highest number of people living with HIV without access to treatment, we have the mandate to find as many people as possible and place them on anti-retroviral treatment.
“Some key population that suffered seriously from this, is the paediatric and adult population in a certain region of the states with hard-to-reach areas in Abia North Senatorial district.
“We are trying to use different strategies to reach out to them and place them on treatment so that they can live a normal life. This project will also truncate the transmission of HIV to other persons.
“Currently many of the states in Nigeria have achieved epidemic control and treatment but this is not the case in Abia State.
“Caritas Nigeria has received a mandate to ensure that we achieve treatment saturation in the state. We have been working here for a year and half and we have made significant progress but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
The Chief of the party, Access projects, Dr John Okpanachi Oko, identified stigma against people living with HIV/ADIS as the only challenge faced by the organisation in her previous projects in the state.
He said, “What we are doing is to officially lunch the new HIV prevention project starting with Abia State.
“It’s a five-year grant from the American centre for disease control and prevention that will be implemented in Abia, Enugu and Imo states. it’s a comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment project.
