Over 50,000 people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in Kogi State, the Acting Executive Secretary, Kogi State Agency for the Control of Aids, Ibrahim Anate has said.
Anate while speaking with journalists during the road Walk in commemoration of the 2024 World AIDS Day in Lokoja said efforts are being made to ensure that people living with HIV have access to Anti-Retroviral Drugs.
At the walk organised by the Centre for Integrated Health Programmes, in collaboration with the Kogi State Agency for the Control of Aids., Anate said out of those living with the disease in the state, 36,066 are presently on treatment in Kogi State.
He said, “We are seriously fighting the scourge and we are giving the awareness to all the community and the hard-to-reach areas of the awareness of HIV in Kogi State.”
He further stated that the governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, is working effortlessly to ensure that those affected by the disease access treatment.
In addition, Anate said the agency is working with the state to ensure that pregnant women who are HIV positive deliver negative babies.
“The current administration is also striving to ensure that people who are positive in Kogi State will turn to negative. The government is seriously working hard by providing support to the Ministry of Health, and KOSACA to see that we take the campaign to the very hard-to-reach community and the community at large in Kogi State,” Anate said.
He also appealed to the state governor to ensure that he signs the Anti Stigma HIV Law, that has been passed by the Kogi State House of Assembly.
