Forty Nine thousand, Five hundred and Thirty Nine people are currently undergoing HIV treatment in Plateau State.
State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Cletus Shurkuk gave the update at a press briefing on Thursday ahead of this year’s World Aids Day commemoration tomorrow in Plateau State.
According to him, Plateau State is one of the states that have attained HIV treatment saturation. The state have 49,539 people currently on treatment and over 95% of the clients were virally suppressed”.
He said despite the giant stride made, there is still an unmet treatment gap amongst the Paediatric sub population and the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission sub population.
“The progress we have made in the HIV/AIDS response require government, the community, civil society, advocates, activists, the faith-bases communities, public and private organizations to come together for the shared goal to save lives and change the course of the HIV/AIDS in Nigeria and the World at large” he said.
The Commissioner said this will require continued engagement, commitment from all stakeholders to end HIV/AIDS as a public health thread by 2030.
Dr. Shurkuk commended Governor Caleb Mutfwang of the state for creating the enabling environment for health activities to thrive in the state and to ensure the improvement in the quality of healthcare services in the state.
He also commended efforts of all stakeholders that are working towards ending HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Members of Media Action for Health, Environment and Sustainable Development (MASHED) among other stakeholders were on ground at the briefing.
The theme for this year’s World Aids Day is “Let Communities Lead”.
Since 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) had designated every December 1st, as World Aids Day.