in commemoration of this year’s World AIDS Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on global leaders and citizens to champion the right to health by addressing the inequalities that hinder progress in ending AIDS. The World AIDS Day is marked annually on 1st December. It is a day set aside to review progress made so far in ending HIV/AIDS and suggest new ways to tackling the disease. The UN agencies have set aside 2030 as the target date to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat. Although the nation is still recording new infections, the Nigerian health authorities should work with development partners to ensure that we join the world to end AIDS by 2030, which is just a few years away.
The theme of the 2024 World AIDS Day, “Take the rights path: My health, my right,” is a clarion call on world leaders and individuals to champion the right to health and address the inequalities that slow the pace of ending the disease. With this theme, everyone deserves access to HIV testing, treatment and care. Making health a human right entails that everyone should have access to the health services they need, including HIV prevention, treatment and care services. Protecting rights means ensuring that healthcare is available to everyone, without any discrimination, regardless of their HIV status, background, gender, or where they live.
Key facts from WHO show that HIV remains a major global public health issue, having claimed an estimated 42.3 million lives to date. Transmission is ongoing in all countries globally. There were an estimated 39.9 million people living with HIV at the end of 2023, 65 per cent of whom are in the WHO African Region. In 2023, an estimated 630,000 people died from HIV-related causes and an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV.
Currently, there is no cure for HIV infection. However, with access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, HIV infection has become a manageable chronic health condition, enabling people with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. The good news is that WHO, the Global Fund and UNAIDS all have global HIV strategies that are aligned with the SDG target 3.3 of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.
It has been estimated that by 2025, 95 per cent of all people living with HIV should have a diagnosis, 95 per cent of whom should be taking lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, and 95 per cent of people living with HIV on treatment should achieve a suppressed viral load for the benefit of the person’s health and for reducing onward transmission of HIV. In 2023, these percentages were 86 per cent, 89 per cent, and 93 per cent respectively. In 2023, of all people living with HIV, 86 per cent knew their status, 77 per cent were receiving antiretroviral therapy and 72 per cent had suppressed viral loads.
In spite of interventions to halt further spread of the disease, Nigeria is still having new HIV infections. According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Nigeria has put the HIV global infection rate at 4,000 per week. The organization, which stated this in Makurdi, Benue State, stressed the need for enhanced preventive measures, particularly among young women and adolescent girls who are mostly at risk. Also, Plateau State recorded 2,260 new cases of HIV infections and 581 AIDS-related deaths in 2023. The states’ Commissioner for Health, Dr. Cletus Shurkuk, disclosed this during the 2024 World AIDS Day in Jos. He said that currently, 45,835 people in the state are living with HIV and are on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART).
Good enough, Plateau State has expanded HIV testing to over 900 healthcare facilities and carried out awareness campaigns on prevention and treatment. Reports from other states in the country indicate of fresh new HIV infections. The situation calls for more awareness campaign about the disease and making sure that all infected people have access to treatment and care. It is time for all citizens to know their HIV status. The only way one can know his HIV status is by testing. Let the government increase HIV testing centres in all the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas.
Medical experts say that HIV spreads more easily in the first few months after a person is infected, but many are unaware of their status until the later stages. The major symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, rash and sore throat. As the disease weakens the immune system, other symptoms are swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhoea and cough. Let all tiers of government join development partners to ensure that those down with the disease have equal access to treatment and care.