Akwa Ibom approves N185m for AIDS sensitisation

The Akwa Ibom State Government has approved about N185 million for its Ministry of Health for the sensitisation of the public on HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the state.
Governor Godswill Akpabio, who stated this on Saturday when Dr. Kwame Ampomah, the United Nations AIDS Co-ordinator of Nigeria, paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Uyo, decried the upsurge of HIV/AIDS in the country, with Akwa Ibom State topping the chart of the scourge with 10.9 prevalence rate in the country.
Akpabio, however, condemned the attitude of some donor agencies in not making use of money to assist people living with HIV/AIDS in the country.
He said: ”I am saddened that some donor agencies do not make use of the money given to them to take care of those living with the scourge.”
According to him: ”So, with the assistance of the federal and state governments, we would take care of them properly by providing them with drugs.
“With the usage of the drugs, the infected are bound to live long.’
He hinted that the state government would send a bill to the state House of Assembly for the creation of AIDS agency to be inaugurated next year to reduce the scourge in the state.
In addition, the governor pledged to tackle mother-to-child transmission by creating awareness on how infected mothers could nurture their children without infecting them and showing the public ways to eradicate the scourge.
Akpabio, therefore, called on the public not to discriminate those living with HIV/AIDS but should embrace and assist by taking care of them.
He added: ”So, I call on people living with HIV/AIDS to come forward for proper medical attention.”
Ampomah said they visited the state to mark the World’s AIDS Day, celebrated all over the country and the world and to support their colleagues in the celebration.
He said that with the prevalence rate of the scourge in the state, they would educate Akwa Ibom State people, especially mothers, on HIV/AIDS on child transmission of the scourge.
Ampomah then appealed to the state government for finances for the support of the programme.