Nigeria has initiated a number of strategies for the elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV by 2020, Dr Sunday Aboje, National Coordinator, National AIDS and STIs Control Programme (NASCP), Ministry of Health said.
Aboje said this at a three-day communication strategic review meeting by Journalists Alliance for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (JAPiN) in Calabar.
Represented by Taiwo Olakunle a staff in the ministry, he said Nigeria contributed about one third of new HIV infections among children in the 21 HIV priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Nigeria has the highest number of children acquiring HIV infection – nearly 60 000 in 2012, a number that has remained largely unchanged since 2009.
“In order to ensure that Nigeria achieves the global target for elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT), in 2015 government and stakeholders have taken bold steps to develop strategies targeted to ensuring access to prevention and treatment programmes.
“These include the adoption of the ‘Test and Treat all’ strategy, decentralization, task shifting and sharing and scaling up of PMTCT services through revitalization and strengthening of the primary healthcare systems,’’ he said.
Aboje said that Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV aimed at eliminating transmission of HIV from mother to child during pregnancy, labour, delivery and breast feeding.
According to him, PMTCT accounts for about 90 per cent of infections in children, hence the focus is to ensure that no child is born with HIV infection in Nigeria.
“PMTCT is an effective and sustainable intervention with a focus on ensuring an HIV-free generation by the strategy of getting to zero and closing the gaps.
“The services commenced in Nigeria in 2001 in six tertiary health facilities. At the end of 2014, about 6546 facilities comprising of tertiary, secondary and primary health care centres are providing PMTCT services,’’ Aboje said.
JAPiN is a network of journalists consistently advocating on issues relating to mother-to-child transmission of HIV, its prevention and elimination in Nigeria.
According to NAN, the meeting was sponsored by UNICEF to enable the media use effective communication as a crucial component of national response to the growing challenge of HIV transmission through the mother-to-child route.
