The Plateau State Ministry of Health has trained 60 healthcare workers on the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Cletus Shurkuk, while speaking at the event on Tuesday in Jos, said the aim of the training was to help reduce the HIV burden, especially the transmission from mother to child.

Mr Shurkuk said the burden from the national statistics for the transmission from mother to child was still in double digit.

He urged the participants, selected from the 17 Local Government Areas of the state to pay attention during the training and ensure they transfer the knowledge gained to their colleagues to help reduce the HIV burden of mother to child transmission in the state and the nation at large.

Earlier, Plateau’s HIV Programme Coordinator, Maria Bawa, said that the aim of the training was to achieve epidemic control and to have a HIV free generation by 2030.

Mrs Bawa, said the healthcare workers would embark on a massive testing of pregnant women in their various communities to ensure that those, who tested positive to the virus, were  be placed on anti retroviral to achieve viral suppression and prevent the transmission of the virus from the mother to her unborn baby.

A participant and Monitoring and Evaluation healthcare officer from Bassa LGA, Elisha Bagae, said the training was insightful as he had gained more knowledge regarding the prevention of HIV from mother to child transmission.

(NAN)