The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has reported that 41% of people in Lagos, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Oyo, and Kano states are HIV positive. The federal health agency reports that this number brings the total number of people living with HIV in Nigeria to 1.9 million, Vanguard reports.
In a Beyond Treatment for Us (BT4U) Project carried out by the Hacey Health Initiative and the United Nations Population Fund Youth Participatory Platform (UNFPA/YPP), more than 100,000 youths in the Southwest of Nigeria were given access to sexual and reproductive health as well as HIV and AIDS services.
This was done through media awareness and training as well as public health sensitization to reach the youths.
The NACA report cited UNAIDS to reveal that worldwide, 37.7 million people are HIV positive in 2020. The report revealed that 36 million of this figure are adults and 1.7 million are children between the ages of 0 and 14. The report also stated that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among young people.
“Apart from reaching over 100,000 people through social media, the project provided Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/AIDS counselling services to 100 young people,” UNFPA/YPP Coordinator George Adjete said. “In addition, BT4U trained over 300 adolescents on menstrual hygiene.”
Initiated in July 2021, the BT4U was conducted by the agencies in response to the political declaration on AIDS 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
