Imo State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha on Tuesday warned that he will sanction any government health worker found charging fees for HIV services in the state.
The governor gave the warning in Owerri, the state capital at the official launch of the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Surge Response organised by the state government in collaboration with the United States Embassy in Nigeria and Caritas Nigeria.
Ihedioha, who regretted that Imo State was one of the seven contributing over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s HIV burden, however restated his government’s commitment to the welfare of Imo people.
He assured that the recommendations of the HIV/AIDS consortium will be promptly looked into in order to find the yet to be identified victims of the pandemic and put them on ART.
“Statistics indicate that Imo is one of the seven priority states with prevalence of HIV. We, therefore, pledge free HIV test and treatment.
“The ministries of health and education will liaise to ensure that all students of tertiary institutions in our state are tested.
“I also appeal to all pregnant women to know their status so as to checkmate mother to child transfer and ensure that henceforth no child is born with HIV in Imo,” the governor said.
In his welcome address, the state Commissioner for health, Dr. Vin Udokwu, disclosed that there were 54,000 HIV patients in the state with 16,000 of them currently on treatment.
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He also disclosed that Imo was the only state that has met its weekly target of finding 112 yet to be identified carriers of the virus and placing them on ART with a view to achieving the epidemic control target of Sept. 2020.
The Imo Programme Coordinator, Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), Dr. Desmond Emeh in her own comments said that 4,700 new cases were expected among persons 15 years and above in year 2020.
He described as `unfortunate’ the HIV prevalence rate of 1.8 per cent among persons aged 0 to 64 while thanking Eze Samuel Ohiri, the chairman, Imo Council of Traditional Rulers for donating 1,000 test kits to the state.
In her contribution, Ms. Kathleen FitzGibbon, the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Nigeria, commended the governor for his proactive efforts in the fight against HIV in the state.
FitzGibbon promised that the USA would continue to provide necessary support to Nigeria and other countries with HIV needs adding that the USA had spent over 60 billion dollars in fighting the disease since 2004.
She however, urged people living with HIV to act as ambassadors to the rest of society and shun stigmatization as according to her, HIV is not a death sentence.
NAN
