Institute Partners Federal, States Govt To Improve 300 Health Facilities

Dr. Patrick Dakum, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), has said the institute is partnering with the government at all levels to improve over 300 health facilities for the benefit of people living with HIV, TB, and other diseases.

While adding that, as of September 2021, “We had supported the treatment of 524,404 people living with HIV in Nigeria, provided HIV counseling and testing services to more than 16 million individuals, identified close to 10,000 people with drug-resistant tuberculosis,  trained over 47,000 health care providers and conducted numerous researches on HIV, tuberculosis, cancer amongst other diseases.

He made this known while speaking on the topic: “Sustaining Health Interventions to Fight COVID-19, HIV, TB, and other Diseases, the Role of The Media” at the 2nd Annual Conference of The African Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ).

IHVN CEO, who was represented at the occasion by Moses Haggai noted that “Although Nigeria recorded again in its fight against TB in 2020, Nigeria ranks sixth among 30 TB high burden countries in the world and has the highest-burden in Africa.

As such necessitates a continuous strategic intervention by the federal government, the WHO, and partners to reduce the burden of the disease in the country by 2030 is very important.

“Recently, we commenced working with the private sector such as patent medicine vendors, community pharmacies, private laboratories, and faith-based organisations to screen and refer tuberculosis patients for treatment in hospitals in 21 states.

“In just two years, through this project, the private sector has contributed with the notification of more than 71,000 tuberculosis patients.

“Innovative approaches in our  five-year project to scale up tuberculosis services and find missing TB cases has led to the identification of more than 14,000 cases in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Osun states since April 2020.”

Speaking on the interventions, he said, “Nigeria has adopted its reviewed National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework 2019-2021 to guide the country’s future response to HIV.

It also follows the result of a new survey that shows that HIV prevalence in the country stands at 1.4%. Previous estimates had indicated Nigeria’s HIV prevalence at 2.8%

The improved understanding of the country’s epidemic based on the survey results will allow efficient investment in the response of HIV and more effective planning for the provision of HIV Prevention, Care, and Treatment services, he said. “Here in Nasarawa State, for instance, the state prevalence was placed at 2.0% with an estimated 23,306 people living with HIV requiring viral suppression. We have been using this population-location approach.

“This involves identifying and mapping out communities and unreached hot spots with key populations requiring HIV prevention, care, and treatment services,” he emphasised.