The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), has urged Nigerians to take a moment to think about children living with HIV and their families as the country celebrates Children’s Day,.
He said that Nigeria still accounts for a significant proportion of children living with HIV infection globally.
“This burden is due to lack of utilisation of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services by pregnant mothers. Even though there has been progress in antiretroviral coverage for pregnant women living with HIV, transmission of HIV infection from infected mother to child remains high. Estimated no of 9,999 pregnant women tested positive in 2020 out of the 2,504,678 pregnant mothers tested for HIV”, he said.
HIV prevention, care and support
Aliyu also said that NACA has been working with partners to scale-up services for HIV prevention, care and support.
“In 2020, Nigeria successfully increased Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) services sites to over 6,000 sites with 37,111 pregnant women receiving antiretroviral treatment. Despite this progress, a lot more needs to be done to stop children from getting infected with HIV so that A HIV-FREE GENERATION IS MADE POSSIBLE”, Aliyu said.
“As we celebrate with our children, please join us and help us win the fight against HIV in children by encouraging pregnant mothers to get tested for HIV to protect their unborn children. No child should be born with HIV in Nigeria”, he added.
May 27 is a day set aside to promote awareness among children and improve children’s welfare.
Nneka Ukachukwu
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