Leadership, Sunday May 24, 2009

HIV: 56,000 Children Born Positive

Annually ― Dr. Dakum

by Achor Abimaje

The Director-General, Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN), Dr. Patrick Dakum, has disclosed that over 56,000 children are born positive annually in the country.

According to him, the national prevalence rate of Human Immune Virus (HIV) in Nigeria is put to 4.6 per cent. Dakum made this disclosure in Jos at a one-day orientation exercise organized by the Institute for Chief Medical Directors and programs coordinator of government hospitals in the North Central Zone.

He further disclosed that the South South Zone had overtaken the North Central as number one in the six-geo political zones of the country, while Benue State had the highest rate among the states in the North Central.

According to him, the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria has been supporting so many sites since the advent of the human immune virus (HIV), country pointing out that ever since the Institute has spread its tentacles to all nooks and crannies in the country to tackle the scourge.

He said it started with four sites on coming on board but was now working in twenty-six states using over 136 health facilities. He stressed that the goal was to support and expand on quality.

Dakum added that the focus of the center was to partner with all sites to create programs of high quality and sustain them while lamenting that over 850, 000 people were currently been treated in the country.

He added that the Institute upgraded existing facilities in primary health centers, capacity building for health workers on sites and the provision of free drugs to affected people to reduce the scourge considerably.