Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDS (OYSACA) says that between January and June, over 6, 900 individuals tested positive for HIV in Oyo State even as it procured N4 million worth of condoms for distribution in the community as part of measures to curtail the spread of HIV.
According to the Nigerian Tribune, Wife of Oyo State governor and Chairperson, OYSACA, Engineer Tamunomini Makinde, who disclosed this at a press briefing, on Thursday, to kick start the 2020 World AIDS celebration in Ibadan, said HIV prevalence rate in the state had remained at 0.9 per cent, with more women affected than men.
Engineer Makinde, speaking through OYSACA’s Executive secretary, Dr Lanre Abass declared that as of June 2020, the agency had counselled and tested over 765,000 people, out of which 0.9 per cent were positive.
She added, that 690 women of the 230,000 pregnant women screened for HIV over the same period also tested positive for HIV even as 21,452 individuals are currently on treatment for HIV in the state.
The OYSACA boss declared that COVID-19 had been a threat to the fight to end AIDS in the state as available resources, especially finance, is dwindling to fight the infection amidst the economic recession the country is presently witnessing.
She, however, stated that it was crucial now to work harmoniously and show love, eliminate stigmatization and discrimination, individualize centred attention and ground responses in human rights and gender-responsive approaches to end the simultaneously occurring pandemics of HIV and COVID-19.
Engineer Makinde, noting the agency’s commitment to have a generation of people free of HIV/AIDS, said the state is considering HIV self-testing, which affords individuals to self-test, as part of measure to increase HIV testing and close gap in treatment in the state.
The 2020 World AIDS celebration, which will be commemorated with various programs including a rally in Saki, film show and debate and quiz on HIV/AIDS among selected school students, she declared, will also offer HIV testing to 10,000 people with the state.
