The Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Prof. John Idoko has said that in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria will ‘completely wipe out HIV/AIDS by 2030.’
According to a statement issued on Friday by the agency’s Chief Communications Officer, Mrs. Toyin Aderibigbe, Idoko made this statement during the 70th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly.
During a programme themed, “Ensuring an AIDS-free generation by 2030: Strengthening the means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals as a strategic imperative for success,” Idoko announced that the Federal government will adopt the World Health Organisation guideline to test and treat.
He said “Nigeria has made significant progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the last decade. We have achieved the MDG 6 of halting and reversing the HIV epidemic and we are committed to sustaining the momentum in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals to achieve an AIDS – free generation by 2030. In support of this, the country will use the strategy of adopting the new WHO guidelines of ‘test and treat’, and the President has identified the local production of HIV/AIDS drugs and related commodities as a key strategy to actualise an AIDS-free generation by 2030.”
Country Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe also narrated how NACA and UNAIDS used Pampaida village in Kaduna State as a model for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Nigeria.
He said “This village achieved the total elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in 2015. Nigeria could lead the way in efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”