AIDS Day: $300m‎ Will Treat 250,000 Nigerians, Says US Ambas

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The US ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington has revealed that a sum of $300 million will be enough and able to treat 250,000 HIV/AIDS infected persons which statistics has revealed occurs daily.

The ambassador who spoke to a group of students, said it’s a few kobo a day for every Nigerian in terms of individual contribution to end the scourge, as there are about three million infected persons with the virus and treating one million will cost $150 a patient‎.

In the same vein, the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria (IHVN) is poised to tackle the virus especially among youths with the use of the acronym DREAM.

Amb. Symington stated this yesterday in Abuja at the 2017 commemoration of the World AIDS Day ‎which was a partnership between Nigerians and Americans to fight the virus and with the theme ‘Changing behaviour for epidemic control.’

He said “Every year, a quarter of a million of Nigerians have been infected with HIV/AIDS. Right now, one million Nigerians are on treatment. With treatment, they will live and their children will live.

“Right now, Nigeria estimates that roughly three million people have the disease. If we work together and if Nigeria steps up, we could help every Nigerian that has the virus and that will cost for two million people and $150 a person $300 million. That’s about $2 from every Nigerian.

“For every Nigerian, that’s a few kobo per day. So treating people who are sick to make them live will cost a lot of money, but not that much. We are talking maybe N700 a person per year, or N2 a day to bear the full cost. However, the challenge is that every single year, more people are getting infected.”

The associate director, community medicine of IHVN, Mrs. Asabe Gomwalk, in her address, said the emphasis is on taking action to control the epidemic. She said with the creation of awareness among youths, education and the teaching on resilience, the epidemic can be overcome.

She said “Our focus is on using a strategy called DREAM. D is for being determined, R for being resilient, E is for them to look at the epidemic and understand what it is all about; A is to have an AIDS-free nation.

“The target is in the youths and adolescents. Today, we are opportune to meet with the youths in Nigeria and talk to them about how not to get themselves ‎infected with HIV. The emphasis is on taking action to control the epidemic and in Nigeria as at today, there are people that are still being diagnosed with new infections. So to control this epidemic, there is need to target the youth. We have found that the infection is more among them.”