Dr. Gambo Aliyu, Director-General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), has alerted that stigmatisation of those living with HIV/AIDS was not helping the agency in curbing the menace.
Speaking during the opening of NACA’s first zonal operation office in Akwa Ibom, Aliyu said since people living with hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses are not discriminated again, AIDS patients should not be stigmatized.
“Stigma is one of the things we are having a renewed programme to fight because there is no way you can encourage people to come out to test for the HIV and access treatment as long as they feel at risk of stigmatisation.
“We are taking it serious because HIV now has been reduced to chronic illness, the same as diabetes and Hypertension,” he said.
The DG in his welcome address said that people should not discriminate against “someone who has a disease that is treatable and can live for the next 20 to 30 years, still remaining active and contributing to the community and society.”
Aliyu said that stigmatisation scared people away from knowing their status, whether they had HIV or not.
In bid to curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS across the country, he told stakeholders that the agency decided to decentralise its operations “to push to the last mile with every resources and energy to curbing the menace.”
According to him, the office would enhance the availability of drugs and testing of AIDS patients.
“NACA is coming closer to communities and states, we are decentralising and it is for one purpose and that purpose is to push for the last mile what the President asked us to do.
“By having this office in Akwa Ibom, it means we can reach all the states in the South-South faster than we could from Abuja and that is why we decided to come.
“We decide to choose an office to locate our zonal office, we look at the state that is ready to do, we are happy to key into his Excellency Governor Udom Emmanuel’s programme,” he said.
Aliyu also lauded the commitment of the state government, religious leaders, traditional institutions, the agency’s implementation partners and agencies that provide services in Akwa Ibom and in South-South in general.
Also, Dominic Ukpong, Commissioner for Health in Akwa Ibom, said that the state government had refurbished health facilities in to bring health-care services to the people of Akwa Ibom.
Ukpong, a medical doctor who announced that Governor Emmanuel had assented to Primary Healthcare System Bill, said the state was working towards providing health insurance scheme to its workforce.
The State Action Against Aids (SACA) Chairman, Dr Nkereuwem Etok, commended NACA for the inauguration of the zonal office.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that goodwill messages were received from the Centre for Global Public Health, University of Manitoba, Edo State Agency for Control of AIDS and FHI360.
