10 January 2009
Alhaji Baba Umaru, Director-General, HIV/AIDS Agency in Niger, on Thursday, said 2,450 patients had registered for free treatment of the infection in the state. Umaru told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna that no fewer than 200,000 persons were living with HIV and AIDS in the state. He said government was worried with the low number who came for treatment and had therefore launched a massive enlightenment on the disease.
According to him, result of the door-to-door campaign is already yielding result. "More people are approaching the agency to know their status, it is a daily affair for us to receive requests for counselling or test," he said, expressing the confidence that the prevalence rate of the infection would drop due to government's pro-active approach in fighting against it.
He said: "The state Assembly has granted us full autonomy; this legal backing will give us the necessary imput to work hard in the fight against the scourge. We have counselled 77,000 persons across the state and 6,000 of them were discovered to be positive during a test that followed the counseling, but sadly only 2,450 are receiving our treatment. No fewer than 140 children are presently receiving treatment from the agency." Umaru appealed for more assistance from national and international donor agencies to enable the agency to increase its reach to people living with the infection in the state.(NAN)
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