The National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA), says the North Central geo-political zone has the highest number of recorded cases of HIV in the country.
NACA Chief Program Officer, Mr Tajudeen Arowolo, stated this at the opening of Four-day Free Medical Outreach organised by the agency at Oja Tuntun, Boboko in Ilorin yesterday.
“This is because of the high cases recorded in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Out of the states in North Central, Kwara has the lowest rate of HIV cases and one of the lowest in the entire country”, Arowolo said.
He said NACA had carried out similar free medical outreaches in many states of the federation with huge success.
He said NACA screened, tested and gave results to 4, 441 people in Kogi State out of the 5,000 targeted people.
He said out of the 4, 441 people that were tested, only 19 women tested positive to the virus. The CPO said 19 people were immediately referred to health facilities nearest to their residence to commence free treatment.
He said there had been remarkable decrease in HIV cases in Nigeria as a result of NACA’s regular outreach programmes.
According to him, NACA’s constant awareness campaign and sensitisation have helped in controlling the spread of the disease in the country. Arowolo attributed the success of the outreach to the strategies adopted by NACA, one of which he said was the inclusion of free medical treatment for other illnesses like malaria, cough and blood sugar level.
He also said all nursing or pregnant women that came for the test and treatment would be given free mosquito nets treated with insecticide. Arowolo said 5, 000 people were expected to come forward for the free test and medical treatment in Ilorin.
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