World AIDS Day: Rivers Targets Zero Infection, 2020

As Rivers State joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World AIDS Day today, the state government has said that it targets to achieve a zero HIV/AIDS infection state by the year 2020.
The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Princewill Chike stated this during an interactive session with journalists as part of activities marking the commemoration of the World AIDS Day in his office in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
Chike said that the state was working towards achieving this following recent survey that revealed that the prevalence rate of the disease in the state has reduced.
He said that the state was focused at ensuring the control target of 90:90:90, adding that government was doing its bit in supporting the health sector and HIV/AIDS fight in particular.
The Health Commissioner said “for this year, our current focus is ensuring that we achieve the control target of 90:90:90. This means that 90 per cent of the people living with HIV/AIDS would have been diagnosed, 90 per cent of those diagnosed receive treatment and 90 per cent of those with Anti-Retroviral Therapy receive viral suppression at least by the year 2020. That is our focus”.
He continued “in the most recent national survey as at 2014, the zero-prevalence has reduced to 5.8 per cent in Rivers State. This is a small but significant reduction from 6.0 per cent as at 2010. This calls for a step up in sensitisation, awareness and education activities in the state towards realising the year 2020 vision”.
While acknowledging the efforts of partners particularly the FHI 360 among others, the Commissioner stressed the need for more concerted efforts by all stakeholders at ending the worldwide epidemics in the state.
Speaking on the theme of the event, “My Health, My Right”, Chike maintained that the right to health was the right to all including people living with HIV/AIDS and urged residents of the state to go for screening to determine their status and get possible treatment.
He further lauded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the provision of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Machine which he said has been installed by the state government at the Braithwaite Specialists Memorial Hospital (BMSH), describing it as functional and beneficial to the people of the state and beyond.