The Anambra state Executive Director, HIV/AIDS programme, Dr Onyekachi Ibezim, has posited that the prevalent rate of AIDS in the state was dropping steadily due to awareness, education, counseling and treatment.
Ibezim, while addressing some newsmen in his office, said it dropped from above nine percent to 2.8 percent, and urged the HIV/AIDS positive on regular treatment which he claimed would prevent its spread and as well as help them to live longer life. According to him, HIV/AIDS incidences were more among the youths due to their alleged adventurous lifestyles.
He said, “For prevalence(old cases), if you want to keep your prevalence, you have to step up your treatment. That means that the number of HIV patients that are living are not increasing. We are doing a lot to prevent new cases.
“If someone is HIV positive and his viral load is high and you place him on treatment and he’s following the treatment strictly, it will suppress the viral load. And when the viral load is suppressed to an undetectable level, that person will not infect others.
“You know we tell people that HIV/AIDS doesn’t kill anymore. But what kills now is stigmatization, hiding from treatment and taking treatment like any other ailment. The patients have some who are on thrice daily drugs, etc.
” It’s even cheering that some drugs used now for HIV management are taken once daily. There is an injection that would soon be pushed to the market to be taken once in two months and another one to be taken once in six months. “
