HIV/AIDS: We Are Alive To Our Responsibilities – OSACA

 

Kazeem Badmus

THE Osun State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS has said it is alive to its responsibilities of preventing the spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in the state, contrary to the report that it is not functioning as expected.

In a statement signed by its Project Manager, Dr Akin Oyebade, the agency said it has been going through the nook and crannies of the state to engage in Community HIV testing in order to identify every person living with HIV and enroll them for treatment. 

According to Oyebade, there is no shortage of condoms and HIV testing kits in the state, noting that there is a procedure to get the commodities by relevant stakeholders. 

READ: HIV/AIDS: There’s Shortage Of Condoms, Test Kits In Osun

He stated that the focus of the State Government and OSACA is to achieve the goal of the SPEED project and SURGE strategy of achieving 100% saturation before the end of 2024. 

Oyebade said the state has been able to place 16,256 persons living with HIV on treatment out of the 29,936 people with the virus. 

The project manager added that OSACA alongside other stakeholders conducted quarterly Joint Supportive Supervisory Visits (JSSV) to HIV Service Delivery Points to offer technical support to HIV service providers.

He said: “The State currently has 16,256 persons living with HIV on treatment out of 29.936 estimated number of people living with HIV. This means that about 54% of people living with HIV have been successfully placed on treatment as against the target of 95%. The goal of the SURGE strategy is to ensure that the State scale-up from 54% to 80% before the end of September 2023, meaning that it is likely Osun State will achieve 100% saturation before the end of 2024, even surpassing 95%. 

“The SURGE strategy has been utilised in several states in Nigeria to achieve 100% saturation within the shortest possible time and Osun State will not be an exception. 

“This is the reason for the SURGE launched in the first place and why currently in every nook, cranny and hard to reach areas of Osun State, community testers have been deployed to identify every person living with HIV and link them to treatment. Placing people living with HIV on treatment, helps them to achieve viral load suppression, which leads to a reduction in the transmission of HIV and the control of the HIV epidemic.

“If there was a lackadaisical attitude to the control of the spread of HIV/AIDS by the State Government as erroneously stated, then Mr Governor, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, would not have launched the SURGE strategy on the 16th March, 2023.

“The SURGE strategy has the capacity to ensure that Osun State achieves the 95-95-95 treatment target, 100% treatment saturation, elimination of the transmission of HIV, control of the HIV epidemic and realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal to end AIDS as a public health threat in Osun State by 2030. 

“The focus of the State Government and O-SACA currently is to achieve the goal of the SPEED project and SURGE strategy which is to identify every person living with HIV through majorly the activities of community testers to identify and link them to treatment to achieve 100% treatment saturation.”