188,000 HIV positive people not yet on treatment in Benue

At least 188,000 people living positively with HIV/AIDs in Benue State are not yet placed on treatment.

State Coordinator of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) in Benue, Dr. Uduak Effiong, made this known on Tuesday in Makurdi while briefing newsmen on activities of the organisation and its programme to mark this year’s World AIDS Day.

Effiong said the figure extracted from the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indication and Impact Survey (NHAIIS) represented the projected number of people living with the virus in Benue and yet to be on treatment.

She said Benue’s HIV prevalence rate has dropped to 5.3 percent from the 14.1 percent it used to be, ranking the state second to Akwa-Ibom with prevalence rating of 5.5 percent highest in the country.

The state’s AHF coordinator however noted that the worry which its organisation seeks to address in this year’s AIDS day remains the higher new infection among young people within the age of 20 and 24 who mostly do unsafe sex.

Also, the AHF-Nigeria Advocacy/Marketing Manager, Steve Aborisade, explained that the organisation in marking the day, would engage in training a minimum of 50 adolescents among other young people attending the event for them to go back to their respective regions and pass down the training to their peers.

Aborishade who stressed the need to safe lives, added there were still much work to be done to minimise challenges associated with HIV as he called on the state government to keep the promise by dedicating more funding and implementing the law against stigmatisation/discrimination of people living with the scourge in the state.

He thanked the state’s ministry of health as well as the state agency for the control of AIDS for their tremendous support over the years to AHF and called on the general public to make themselves available to benefit free treatment in the organisation’s various health facility in the state.