“Over 50,000 people are living with HIV/AIDs in Kogi”

No fewer than over 50,000 people are living with HIV/AIDs in Kogi State, ROYAL NEWS has gathered.

The Acting Executive Secretary of the Kogi State Agency for the Control of AIDS (KOSACA), Ibrahim Anate, disclosed this in commemoration of the 2024 World AIDS Day in Lokoja.

The event was organized by the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP) in collaboration with the Kogi State Agency for the Control of AIDS.

According to him, “36,066 are presently on treatment in Kogi State. We are seriously fighting the scourge, and we are raising awareness in all the communities and hard-to-reach areas of Kogi State about HIV.”

“The state government under Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo is striving hard to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS are on treatment and that pregnant women who are HIV positive deliver babies that are negative.”

“The current administration is also striving hard to ensure that people who are positive in Kogi State will turn negative.

“The government is seriously working by providing support to the Ministry of Health and KOSACA to take the campaign to the very hard-to-reach communities and the community at large in Kogi State.”

He explained that with the current security challenges in some parts of the state, some HIV patients find it difficult to access treatment.

Anate, however, appealed to Governor Ododo to give his assent to the Anti-Stigma HIV law, which was recently passed by the Kogi State House of Assembly.

“When the governor assents to this law, people who are HIV positive can have the confidence to come out and declare their status. Many can’t do this because of the stigmatization in society,” he added.

Also speaking, the Kogi State Technical Lead of the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP), Inyama Lawrencia, lamented the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child in the state.

Her words: “We have been advocating for every mother to go for antenatal services so that they can know their HIV status.

“With the record on hand about mother-to-child HIV transmission, CIHP has been working in the communities sensitizing women to ensure that they come out in masses to know their HIV status.”

“One of the challenges is that, due to the economic situation of the country, some women who are supposed to go out to know their status don’t go because of financial constraints,” she added.