The Anambra State Government through the State Ministry of Health is partnering with Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNI) and Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), to evaluate the use of HIV Self Test (HIVST) across the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike, said the state would continue to partner with AHNI, IHVN and other partners to identify HIV patients and as well administer treatment to them using available technology.
“HIV causes AIDS and interferes with the body’s ability to fight infections, the virus can be transmitted through contact with infected blood, semen or vaginal fluids and it also spreads through unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected partner.
“The HIV Self Testing is highly commendable, we are appealing for more support especially now that flood is ravaging some communities in the state. It is good that we have increased the number of people we are testing especially in using modern technology to do the self-testing which will equally help end the stigmatization of HIV patients.”
He assured them that the administration of governor Charles Soludo is committed to improving the healthcare of Anambra people through fruitful partnerships.
“As Government, we are going to provide an office for the IHVN team so that they will feel comfortable and relaxed to achieve their objectives.”
Dr. Charles Odima, Deputy Project Director, Global Fund National Aligned HIV/AIDS Initiative (NAHI) Grant and the Project Lead for Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNI), said that they are supporting comprehensive HIV surge response which is ultimately moving toward HIV epidemic control in the state.
“According to him, the IHVN team is leading the National program which is assessment and evaluation of uptake of HIV self-testing. The HIV self-testing is one modality of reaching more of those high-risk groups like the key population, the Adolescent girls and young women within the state.”
Dr. Odima noted that the teams are in the state to galvanize effort, support the state team to increase awareness as well as move toward increasing uptake ultimately for HIV self-tests.
“So we are here with the Commissioner to introduce the IHVN team and also have the concurrence and the support of the state government. We are delighted that in his hospitality, the commissioner committed to working around by providing an office for the team to work with.
“Our goal is to reach out to more people in the state with HIV services so that we can continuously strive towards reducing the prevalence and incidence rate for HIV, especially within the young population.”
Coordinator of the evaluation project, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, Mr. Silas Gurumdi, explained that the evaluation of the self-HIV test is all about assessing the impact of the HIV Self Test that have been going on for the past two years in Anambra.
“The evaluation will seek to answer the following research questions. Does the aggregate data in Nigeria and Uganda show the impact of HIVST within priority populations and demonstrate the demographics of those taking up testing and identify target populations not being reached?
“What are the gaps in the HIV prevention and care cascades from distribution of HIVST, kits to confirmatory testing, linkage to care and provision of ART or preventative services? What are the health provider costs of different HIVST distribution models and which models or a combination of models would be cost effective for policymakers in Nigeria and Uganda to implement?
“The aim is to see if there is progress made, some of the gaps that have been encountered and then suggest ways things can be done more robustly. We know that AHNI has been at the forefront of providing these services, it is really good to provide the services but we also need to know how far this has affected the population in one way or the other.
“We want to accelerate the use of HIV self-test and this will help reduce the pressure in most of the health systems that are on the ground because if you use self-test, it will certainly help people to know their status without bothering the Healthcare workers except where treatment is required.”
