HIV/AIDS Intervention: Attention Not Shifted To Covid-19 – Expert

Contrary to widely held belief that following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria, interventionist efforts have shifted to Covid-19, an expert in clinical care, Dr Adekoya Peters, says that feeling is only an assumption by the media. 
According to Dr. Peters, who is the Chief of Party, Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research, as far as implementing partners are concerned, irrespective of the threat posed by Covid-19, their original mandate on HIV/AIDS intervention remains the same.
“It’s just an assumption from the media because, for the implementing organisations, their mandates are always defined from the beginning, and even during pandemic”, he said.
 He explained that implementing organisations have had their mandates before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, hence they keep to strict implementation of such mandates.
Peters, who was fielding questions in an exclusive interview recently in Port Harcourt, stated that the only difference between pre and post Covid-19 era is in terms of the need by implementing partners to carry out their jobs in adherence to Covid-19 protocols.
“It (attention to Covid-19) does not in any way change my mandate. The only thing is that I have to now think of strategies amidst the Covid-19 pandemic”, he said.
He explained further that such strategies include how to deliver his organisation’s original mandate, especially ensuring that beneficiaries to HIV/AIDS programmes are met in the midst of the lockdown.
“What we did was to get permission from the government to give us exemptions to move around”, he stated. 
This, he said, enabled them deliver relevant drugs to those on the treatment programme, because they couldn’t get access to the drugs due to the lockdown.
“What we did was to take the drugs to them in the communities … So it does not really affect our programme, not in terms of changing our mandate.
“It’s just more on changing our strategies. But the mandate remains the same”, he concluded.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo