180,000 HIV patients access 264 health facilities in Benue

A total of 180,000 people living with HIV are now accessing life-saving antiretroviral treatment across 264 health facilities in Benue State.

The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Yanmar Ortese, made the disclosure while commending the APIN public health initiative and the United States Centre for Disease Control (US CDC) for donating a cutting-edge Molecular Laboratory and a Polymerase Chain Reaction machine to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Makurdi, the state capital.

 Ortese was full of praises for the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for its support to the state in the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

“Your investment in our healthcare system has been instrumental in transforming HIV from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. 

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“Through PEPFAR’s support, over 180,000 people living with HIV are now accessing life-saving antiretroviral treatment across 264 health facilities in our state. 

“The prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme has also ensured the birth of approximately 8,000 HIV-negative babies annually,” Ortese stated. 

Earlier, the FMC Medical Director, Kortor, said the donation of the machine was a development which marked a significant step forward in the commitment to enhancing healthcare services and bolstering the capacity to combat infectious diseases in the state. 

The Acting Country Director, US CDC-Nigeria, Suzanne Theroux, at the commissioning of the project, presented a laboratory accreditation certificate number ISO15189:2012 to the medical director of FMC, Professor Joseph Kortor.

Theroux expressed confidence that the donation would improve healthcare for HIV patients and others suffering from chronic diseases.