US Partners with Abia to Fight HIV/AIDS

By Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo

The United States Government has launched a programme of assistance to enable Abia State bridge the treatment gap for 38,000 persons living with HIV/AIDs (PLHIV) who are currently not captured within the treatment zone.

The intervention programme marked the re-engagement of U.S. with Abia to assist the state through the U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and support renewed efforts towards HIV epidemic control.

In implementing the programme, the U.S. will work with the Abia State Government and other stakeholders to close the HIV treatment gap by identifying and initiating treatment for an additional 38,000 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Abia State within the next two years.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ engagement forum in Umuahia, the state capital, the U.S Embassy Charge d’Affaires (CDA), Kathleen FitzGibbon, said: “Nobody needs to die from HIV/AIDS” given the advancement in technology and medical science, assuring the state that the U.S. would assist Abia build the capacity to bridge the treatment gap.

The CDA led a U.S. delegation comprising PEPFAR Coordinator, Mark Giambrone; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Country Director, Dr. Mary Boyd; U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) HIV/TB Office Director, Rachel Goldstein; and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Country Director, Dr. Laura Chittenden.

The team was joined by the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Aliyu Gambo, and the Coordinator of the National AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections Control and Hepatitis Programme (NASCP), Dr. Akudo Ikpeazu, as well as the representative of Nigerian Ministry of Defence, Health Implementation Programme, Brig. Gen. NAE Okeji (rtd).

“The U.S. is looking to Abia State to lead and demonstrate a model of sustainable state ownership of the HIV response,” FitzGibbon said, adding that: “This will help to strengthen the partnership between the United States and Abia State.”

The Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, said that the alarming figure of 38,000 PLHIV not receiving treatment in Abia was majorly concentrated at the border communities.

Ikpeazu, wno was represented at the stakeholders’ engagement by his Deputy, Ude Oko Chukwu, lamented the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Abia engendered by its geographucal location whereby it shares boundaries with several states.

Abia, which shares borders with seven states including Imo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Anambra, Rivers, Enugu, and Ebonyi, ranks sixth in HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Nigeria.

The governor pledged that Abia would “do everything” to collaborate with the U.S to ensure that treatment gets to the people outside the treatment zone.

In his remarks the Director General of National Agency for Control of AIDS(NACA), Dr Aliyu Gambo, challenged Abia State to use the ingenuity of its citizens and come up with a cure for AIDS.

The Catholic Bishop of Umuahia, Most Rev Lucius Ugorji, represented by the Auxiliary Bishop, Most Rev Michael Kalu Ukpong, lauded the U.S. Government for choosing Catholic Caritas Foundation to implement the programme.

“The Catholic Diocese of Umuahia is promising to do more in educating and conscientizing the public to see HIV/AIDS patients as people who need help and support and not as people stigmatised and as such to be avoided or abandoned,” he said.