UNAIDS, Buhari to review Nigeria’s response to AIDS epidemic – Official

The Executive Director and UN Under-secretary General, Michal Sidibe of UNAIDS will soon meet President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt “a new political declaration on HIV/AIDS”.
This was disclosed by Dr. Bilali Camara, the Country Director of UNAIDS, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.
Camara said the two leaders would meet during a three-day visit by Sidibe to the country from February 7 to 10.
According to him, the UN under-secretary general will also discuss with national authorities the global AIDS situation and the specific AIDS situation in Nigeria.
He added that the visit would enable the UNAIDS executive director discuss Nigeria’s response to AIDS epidemic with the president.
Camara said: “He will discuss with President Muhammadu Buhari on the upcoming high level meeting on June 8th to 9th, 2016 in New York USA.
“The meeting in the US is to discuss and agree on the new political declaration to end AIDS epidemic by 2030.
“We hope that Nigeria can play important role in that meeting, leadership role in that meeting.”
According to Camara, the executive director will ask Buhari to lend his leadership role to ensure that the meeting became a successful one.
“We are counting on Nigeria’s leadership in that upcoming event,” he said.
He said Sidibe would also meet with some pharmaceutical companies on the local production of anti-retroviral drugs in Nigeria.
He said: “It is important and key part of the response to the end of HIV/AIDS.
“If we want to fast-track the fight to halt AIDS, we must make drugs available.”
Camara said Sidibe will interact with stakeholders and discuss the urgent need to enhance AIDS treatment.
He said: “Treatment is very critical because it is the only way to eliminate AIDS as a public health challenge in Nigeria and the rest of the world.
“The discussion will rally around how Nigeria can fulfil its obligation in terms of putting more domestic resources to complement the external resources coming from the foreign donors.”
Camara said the visit will explore “how better Nigeria can make use of strategic information to make decisions to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the response to AIDS epidemic.
“It will also show how partnership and collaborations can integrate more AIDS response in the health sector to get the HIV/AIDS under control.
“As United Nations, we will continue to support Nigeria as much as possible to see how better we can coordinate our effort with key donors such as PEPFER and the global fund.
“We will continue to support the government and people of Nigeria to ensure that resources are well utilised in the fight against AIDS epidemic.
“We will intensify our technical support to ensure that resources are made available to national, state and local governments to help them fast-track response to achieve the viral suppression.”
NAN.