HIV: 2,131 Pregnant Women Tested Positive

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris has disclosed that an alarming number of pregnant women have tested positive to HIV.

The commissioner, at a ministerial news conference in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, disclosed that 38,791 pregnant women were tested for HIV, out of which 2,131 of them tested positive in the last one year.

He said the test was carried out from the money received from Global Fund to tackle HIV issues in the state in a bid to stem the spread.

He said the agreement between the Global Fund and the Lagos State Government was signed in February 2017 with the Lagos State Ministry of Health expected to receive and manage the Global Fund grants, to oversee grant implementation and procurement, and to report on grant programmatic and financial performance to the Global Fund Secretariat.

“This first phase of the grant was described as the pilot phase and it was agreed that the success of Lagos State in this phase would be a benchmark for which the Global Fund would be in a position to implement in other states in the country for implementation and indeed other sub-national entities world-wide for program implementation.

“During the pilot phase of the grant (January – December, 2017), a total sum ofUSD9,623,390.08 was made available to the Principal Recipient to cover Procurement of Health products for PLHIV, conduct of the Lagos State AIDS Indicator Survey, Implementation and Technical Support to Health facilities in the 3 LGAs by the Sub-Recipient (APIN) and funds to the LSMOH for Grant Management.

“The Lagos State Government approved State Counterpart Funds to the tune of 10% of the total grant sum to support programme implementation. By the end of 2017, the support provided through Global Fund was able to avail a minimum of 226,768 persons (+15yrs) with free HIV counselling and testing as well as knowledge of their HIV status, with the cumulative total of 10,623 PLHIV in the 3 LGAs placed on the lifesaving Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART).

“Also, at least 38,791 pregnant women know their HIV status out of which about 2,131 (HIV positive pregnant women) were enrolled for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission programme,” he stated.

Idris said the key objectives of the grant were to reduce new HIV infections, and improve the quality of life for the infected, affected, and to place 10,337 number of PLHIVs on treatment of which 3876 are children; provide people living in Epe, Ikorodu and OshodIIsolo LGAs with universal access to high-quality, patient-centered prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services for TB/HIV by 2017 and contribute towards achieving HIV epidemic control in Epe, Ikorodu and Oshodi/Isolo LGAs by year 2020 with Epidemic control defined as ART coverage of at least 80%.