Leadership (Abuja)
News Agency of Nigeria
25 August 2008
The Kogi State Action Committee on AIDS (KOSACA), has developed a three-year priority intervention plans to enhance the mitigation of HIV and AIDS in the area.
This was contained in the State 'sHIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (2006-2009) signed by KOSACA Manager and Secretary, Hajia Rabiat Ajanah and issued to newsmen in Lokoja yesterday.
According to her, the plan contained 13 priority intervention areas, including efforts to sustain the high-level advocacy and to secure the commitment of political and traditional office holders and administrative institutions.
Other areas, she added, were increased access to care and treatment, scaling up of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) sites, voluntary counselling and Testing, and the establishment of more Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission(PMTCT) centres.
The secretary said the committee would establish guidelines for services for the mitigation of HIV/AIDS and to enhance the universal safety precautions and linkages with other relevant poverty- reduction institutions.
The plan also targeted women, children, youths, orphans and vulnerable children and other high-risk groups, for the needed attention, in stemming the prevalence of HIV and AIDS, she said.
In his forword to the plan, the governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, stated that "the efforts of government and various stakeholders have succeessfully brought down the HIV prevalence rate of our state from 5.7 per cent in 2003 to 5.5 per cent in 2005".
He, however, described the decrease as "marginal", adding that "a lot still need to be done".
Governor Idris said it was based on the stark reality of HIV/AIDS in the state that the government initiated a process to review what the stakeholders response had been in the area, for the past five years(2001-2005).
Such response, he added, had been the basis for developing the 2006-2009 strategic plan for the state .
He commended the management of KOSACA, for its contributions in the successful development of the plan.(NAN)
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