HIV/AIDS: Expert Tasks Govt On PMTCT

An expert in Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Abiola Davies, has called on government at all levels to give priority attention to PMTCT in order to achieve elimination of Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT) in the country.
Davies, who made the call recently in an exclusive interview with The Tide stated that since the commencement of PMTCT in 2002, Nigeria has only recorded 45 per cent coverage, against the 90 percent to 95 per cent coverage recorded by countries globally.
According to her, one of the major challenges is the fact that since the commencement of PMTCT in Nigeria, HIV/AIDS program which also includes PMTCT, has been donor-driven in terms of provision of consumables such as drugs and test kits.
“One of the major challenges we’ve had since the commencement (of PMTCT) is that most of the programming in Nigeria, HIV programming, including PMTCT, it’s mainly donor driven. That means we have a developing agents organisation that is putting funding towards programming.
“Definetely, Government provides healthcare workers to work in the facilities. But when you talk about test kits, drugs and the tests that need to be done, they are mainly done by development organisations”, she said.
In order to attain the required coverage, therefore, Dr. Davies said Government need to prioritize PMTCT specifically by owning the process, especially in terms of investing more money in it. “I will love to see that government puts more money, that it’s more driven by government in funding to walk the talk”, she stated, adding that “obviously, who pays the piper dictates the tune, and if development agencies have their own agenda they pursue sometimes, it may not always allign with the agenda of the Government”.
She also noted that beyond funding by donor agencies, the bulk of money currently put in is from the Federal Government.
“Another challenge we have is that although the government is not putting that much money, most of the money is put in at the federal level. Most of the States are not putting that much funding to HIV/AIDS, not to talk of PMTCT”, she said.
Consequently, she called for a declaration of national emergency on PMTCT.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo