Lawmaker Alerts On HIV/AIDS Spread In Rivers

Out of about 180,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS in Rivers State less than 8,000 are currently receiving treatment for the disease.

Leader, Rivers State delegation to the Joint Zonal Consultative Meeting on National Ownership of HIV/AIDS Response, Hon Leyii Kwanee disclosed this to Assembly correspondents shortly after his return from Abuja, recently.

Hon Kwanee who represents Khana Constituency  II in the Rivers State House of Assembly said the state  carries a high burden of the dreaded disease with a median prevalence rate of 6.0 per cent, adding that Rivers ranked 8th among the 12 most impacted states in the country.

The lawmaker regretted that out of about 1.5 million Nigerians living with the disease, less than 500,000 have access to medication.

He explained that the purpose of the meeting was to explore the potentials, prospects and feasibility of establishing a national HIV/AIDS Fund (NAHAF) that would attract resources from the Federal, states, LGAs, organized private sector and donor agencies to contribute to HIV/AIDS activities at all levels.

The Deputy Speaker noted that the infection rate in the rural areas is as high as in the urban areas of the state, stressing that most interventions had been concentrated in the urban areas of the state while ignorance remains wide spread in the rural communities.

Hon Kwanee called for the establishment of more treatment centres in the state from the present five centres out of the 23 local government areas to one treatment centre per council area and urged council chairmen to provide funds for the Local Action Committee on AIDS (LACA) for grassroot HIV education.

The Deputy Speaker urged the media to continue to educate Rivers people on the dangers posed by the AIDS scourge, emphasizing that media practitioners should assist the government to enlighten the public on the need to participate at every level of the proposed National HIV/AIDS Fund.

He commended the state governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi for not only addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic but other health conditions like Malaria, Polio, Lassa Fever among others.