A national advocacy campaign on HIV/AIDS was at the weekend launched with a target of 30,000 persons in multiple communities across eight high-risk states in the country, as part of 2018 World AIDS Day celebration with the theme “Know Your Status”.
The campaign, organised by Red-Ribbon Coalition, Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), Society for Family Health (SFH) and Development Communications Network, is convened by Coca-Cola Nigeria.
Inaugurated in 2015, the past projects brought together Nigeria’s football, music, comedy and movie stars to work as advocates for the fight against HIV.
This year’s advocacy campaign targets 30, 000 people in multiple communities across eight high-risk states of Lagos, Oyo, FCT-Abuja, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Gombe, and Kano, through a combination of activities such as media awareness, voluntary counselling and testing, public education and awareness sessions and entertainment, using drama and football.
A statement jointly signed by Iwalola Akin-Jimoh for Youth Empowerment Foundation and Funke Adewoyin for Society For Family Health and made available to Blueprint said HIV infection has spread in Africa since it was first discovered 32 years ago and has continued to have a great impact on health, welfare, and employment, affecting all social andbethnic groups throughout the world.
“It is estimated that about 3, 229,757 people living with HIV in Nigeria and about 220,393 new HIV infections occurred in 2013 and 210,031 died from AIDS-related cases. HIV prevalence among adults in
Nigeria is relatively low (3.2%), yet Nigeria is an enormous country where HIV infection remains an issue that demands a systematic and highly tailored intervention.
“The World AIDS Day is a day globally set aside to provide an opportunity for people to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died
from an AIDS-related illness. The number of people estimated to be receiving Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) was 747,382 with 3.0 million adult populations estimated to be living with the disease as of 2014.
“Nigeria has the second largest HIV disease burden in the world, with 3.2 million people living with HIV, after South Africa which has 6.8 million burden of the disease though prevalence is stable at 3.4%
(National HIV/AIDS Reproductive health survey 2012 PLUS II)”
Activities to commemorate the World Aids Day campaign includes: a 2-week long voluntary counselling and testing session which began on Friday, 30 November 2018 and ends on Saturday,15th December 2018. A novelty match to close out the events on Saturday, 08 December 2018 at Araromi mini stadium, Gbagada, Lagos.
