Buhari: Lack of Accurate Data Affecting Nigeria’s Access to HIV/AIDS Global Grants

By Paul Obi in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja said that the absence of accurate data in Nigeria was affecting Nigeria’s competitiveness in accessing HIV/AIDS global grants.

The president stated this when he launched the National HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), which he said would reliably estimate the current status and spread of HIV, Hepatitis B and C in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). 

The president explained that government was committed to investing huge resources to combat HIV/AIDS in order to eradicate the disease.

 He added that “despite spending these resources, coverage and access to persons living with HIV remains a challenge, leading to wastage of HIV commodities.

“The importance of accurate data on HIV is very crucial for sustainable solutions on HIV/AIDS. The lack of data on HIV epidemic has also compounded the country’s ability to compete for HIV global grants,” Buhari stressed. 

Also speaking at the event, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha stated that though Nigeria had made progress in generating data for planning and policy making, multi-sectoral response to health challenges, particularly, HIV/AIDS was very important to addressing the problems.

On his part, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Enahire explained that the launch of NAIIS by the President marked the beginning of work in redefining the real status of HIV/AIDS, which required scientific survey to achieve. 

Director General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Sani Aliyu harped on the need to overcome the current challenges in the fight against the virus. 

He said: “There is no doubt we have a HIV problem in Nigeria. We have the second largest HIV burden in the world with about 3.2million people living with the virus. We estimate about 600 Nigerians are infected with HIV and about 400 Nigerians die from this infection daily. 

“Almost two-thirds of all new HIV infections in West and Central Africa occurred in Nigeria in 2016. We also contribute the largest number of HIV-infected babies in the world – one in every four babies born with HIV in the world in 2016 was a Nigerian child.” 

Aliyu observed that “the number of persons on life saving medications has increased from about 100,000 to just over a million and the number of hospitals providing HIV/AIDS treatment sites have increased more than 10-fold, yet the epidemic burden has remained the same.  We are making progress but it’s painful and slow because we are not sure where we should be looking.” 

He further added: “As more resources are put into the programme, the cost of finding a person living with HIV has also increased. Perhaps, this is the more reason why we need to have more precise estimates not only to determine the epidemic burden but measure the impact of our current interventions in order to plan more effectively, especially in this era of huge budget cuts and uncertain donor resources.” 

Chairman of NACA board, Mrs. Pauline Tallen commented: “Today we are taking a major step in doing the right thing – committing ourselves to finding out where HIV is hiding in our country, the National HIV/AIDS indicator survey we are launching will conclusively provide us with more precise estimates of the number of people living with the virus, the number of new infections and where they are.”