The US Centre for Disease Control, CDC, announced in Abuja this week that it has spent over $4bn on the campaign against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria since 2004. The Country Director, CDC, Mr. Mahesh Swaminathan, made this known in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the conference on “Partnering for Sustainable HIV Epidemic Control in Nigeria,” in Abuja.
The conference, which was organised by the CDC for stakeholders in the health sector across the country, sought to discuss the way forward to tackle HIV/AIDS in the country. Mr. Swaminathan identified Nigeria as the third largest country participating in the program known as US President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, PEPFAR. According to him, the program has contributed about 64 percent of the total HIV investment in Nigeria, as a major recipient of PEPFAR funds.
In the words of the Country Director, “The CDC has collaborated with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health to support sustainable, country-owned HIV prevention, treatment and care programs to strengthen the country’s laboratory diseases surveillance. Working with nine comprehensive partners and government of Nigeria in the past five years, we scaled up HIV testing and treatment for HIV positive individuals in high burden local government areas.
Mr. Swaminathan further stated, “We have developed modified prevention plan for high risk population, the intervention against mother-to-child transmission of HIV as well as provided laboratory support for diagnosis. Presently, more than 720,000 people are on PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment, approximately four million people have received HIV counseling and testing services in 2017. HIV prevention messages and activities have reached more than 300,000 people identified as most-at-risk, and approximately 50,000 pregnant women received anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV”.
He assured that the US would continue to collaborate with Nigerian authorities through the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners to ensure higher level of accountability, transparency and impact of the HIV/AIDS campaign program in Nigeria.
Mr. Swaminathan described the CDC as a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, aimed at promoting best practices in public health services for Nigerian citizens through its collaboration with the federal government and other health partners.