The federal government says Nigeria has made huge progress in the HIV/AIDS response and is on the way to ending the disease by 2030.

The Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this during a media conference on Thursday to mark the 2023 World AIDS Day with the theme, “Let Communities Lead”.

Mr Alausa also unveiled some national HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) policy documents meant to strengthen the existing framework for action to reduce the spread of the diseases and manage their impact.

The documents are National Guidelines for Viral Hepatitis Treatment and Care – 2023, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials for Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) demand creation and scale-up-2023.

Others are Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for PMTCT scale-up, jingles in 10 languages for PMTCT scale-up – 2023 and IEC materials for HIV self-testing scale-up – 2022

According to Mr Alausa, progress in responding to the disease has been made in the last two decades, and the epidemic will be ended by 2030.

“Nigeria, with the current HIV treatment coverage above 90 per cent, is well on course to meet this goal.

“Currently, Nigeria has 1.6 million People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) on treatment out of 1.9 million,” the minister said.

He added that communities contribute to the HIV/AIDS response in numerous ways. Their leadership and advocacy ensure the response remains relevant and grounded, keeping people at the centre and leaving no one behind.

“We cannot achieve lasting progress in our battle against HIV/AIDS without the active involvement of our communities.

“Our communities and community structures are not merely recipients of care; they are champions of change, the catalysts for progress, and the backbone of our collective resilience,“ he stated.

The minister also said that the tremendous efforts that successive governments and other stakeholders have made to control the HIV epidemic by averting new transmission and improving lives cannot be over-emphasised.

While giving an update on the state of HIV epidemics in Nigeria, the national coordinator of the National AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and STIs Control Programme (NASCP), Adebobola Bashorun, said there has been a steady decline in annual HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.

He, however, said that out of the 1.9 million PLHIV, 270,000 had not been identified and that as of 2022, 159,923 estimated children between zero to 14 years were living with HIV in Nigeria, making it one of the countries with the highest paediatric HIV burden globally.

“Also, 20,364 HIV-exposed infants (HEIs) had Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) samples collected within two months of delivery, which translates to only 21 per cent EID coverage and an MTCT rate of 14 per cent at six weeks and 23 per cent through breastfeeding.

“96,517estimated HIV positive pregnant women who needed PMTCT, only 34 per cent were enrolled on Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) in 2022.

“However, 50,676 children living with HIV (CLHIV) were on treatment in 2022, which represents 32 per cent of the estimated CLHIVs,” he explained.

Mr Bashorun noted that despite the current efforts towards paediatric case finding and linkage to HIV treatment, many children remain undiagnosed and thus without access to life-saving ART.

(NAN)