The Federal Government of Nigeria has said it is committed to putting an end to mother-to-child transmission of HIV in the country.
The Deputy Director and Head of Treatment, Care and Support, National AIDS/STIs Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Clement Adesigbin, made this known at the 2nd scientific roundtable series organised by the Centre for Integrated Health Programmes in Abuja.
The programme was themed ‘Leaving no one behind: Innovative programme recalibration, integration and the role of big data in reaching sub-population for HIV epidemic control.’
According to Adesigbin, Nigeria has done well in HIV response.
“We are so happy that in those days, you will see many clients coming with AIDS but these days, that is not the case again, so we have done so well.
“Look at the prevalence of HIV in Nigeria now it is 1.3 percent, so it is so hard to even find these cases out of 200 million people, and that is why you need a lot of innovation.
“For paediatrics that we are discussing, that is part of our priorities. We are not doing so well and that is the common thing when you look at it globally, paediatrics is usually an issue.
“Some countries have done so well in terms of eliminating mother-to-child transmission and Rwanda is a case for example. Nigeria is not doing that so well. But these days, we are putting all our efforts to make sure that that should not happen, no child should be infected again and except you close that gap, you will continue to have paediatric cases.
“So if we can really close the leaking gap, in terms of PMTCT, then we have little to do with in terms of paediatric cases,” Adesigbin said.
