LAGOS URGES RESIDENTS TO KNOW HIV STATUS

In commemoration of 2018 World AIDS day, Lagos State Government organised HIV/AIDS Awareness Forum for residents of Agege area of Lagos and urged them to know their HIV status as well as desist from all forms of discrimination against patients.

The State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mr. Agboola Dabiri made the appeal in his address at the event, saying that the spread of HIV/AIDS would be detrimental to Nigeria’s growth if not tackled by periodic status test, counselling and awareness programmes.

Dabiri, represented by the Director of Youth in the Ministry, Mr. Bode Adams, called for institutional and political commitment to the creation of policies that provide life-saving medication for patients.

According to him, “HIV is an infection that destroys the human immune system and renders the entire body vulnerable to any kind of disease”.

“Thus, we must intensify our collective efforts to meet the serious challenges to eliminate the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in Nigeria and Lagos State in order to move towards an HIV-free generation by 2020”, Dabiri said.

He urged HIV patients to disregard myths of the infection being a death sentence as “HIV/AIDS can be managed like any other disease and the patients made to live normal lives”.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, who spoke through Kayode Asake said, “HIV testing is essential for expanding treatment and ensuring that all people living with HIV can have healthy and productive health”.

He, however, urged the government and private owned organisations to support intensifying government to campaigns on HIV/AIDS.

Speaking on the theme ‘Know Your Status’, HIV/AIDS Specialist, Dr. Toriola Adebayo, said ignorance of HIV status increases the risk at which an individual can be infected, noting that 70 million people had been infected of HIV, and 35 million have died of the infection since discovery in 1983.

Adebayo, while lamenting low rate of HIV testing, disclosed that only 22 million out of over 37 million people currently affected are undergoing treatment.

She, therefore, advised Nigerians, especially Lagosians, to periodically check their status and stop discriminating against HIV positive persons.