The increasing number of new Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections is an indication that the virus, which causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), is still a serious global health challenge that cannot be ignored. However, the good news is that there is a global action to contain new HIV infections as well as ensure that those down with the virus have access to HIV treatment.
Before the celebration of this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that about 300,000 children were newly infected with HIV in 2020. The UN agency also revealed that not less than 120,000 children died from AIDS-related causes last year. Specifically, the report indicated that in Nigeria, about 20,695 children aged 0-9 years were said to be newly infected with HIV during the same period under review.
Globally, about 37.7 million people are with HIV in 2020. Out of the figure, 36 million were adults and 1.7 were children aged 0-14 years. More than half (53 per cent) were women and girls. Also, about 84 per cent of people with HIV worldwide have been tested and know their HIV status.
As at June 2020, about 28.2 million people with HIV (75 per cent) were accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) across the world.
In a related development, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has deplored the spread of AIDS and subsequent deaths in Africa despite the free access to effective treatment of the condition. Africa has reportedly recorded 460,000 deaths from AIDS. WHO also predicted that AIDS will continue to be a public health threat on the continent up to 2030, even though it has made some appreciable progress in halting the spread of HIV in the last few years.
Africa, it said, has reduced new infections by 43 per cent and almost halved deaths arising from AIDS. Similarly, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the spread of HIV/AIDS by limiting access to life-saving services. UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Hawkins, has pointed out that rising poverty and mental health issues have increased children and women’s risk of infection.
According to the Executive Director of UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, “unless we ramp up efforts to solve the inequalities driving the HIV epidemic, which are now exacerbated by COVID-19, we may see more children infected with HIV and more children losing their fight against AIDS.”
Available records show that not less than 16 countries have been certified from eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV. According to the WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. MatshidisoMoeti, Botswana is the only country in Africa that is on the path of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The number of new HIV infections in Africa is frightening. So also is the number of people that died from AIDS. The depressing situation calls for more concerted efforts against the disease. Government and HIV/AIDS-related agencies must step up the campaigns against the disease in all parts of the country using all available channels of mass communication.
They can use the traditional media to pass the HIV/AIDS-preventive messages. The public must be made to recognise that the disease is still on the prowl. Nigerians are enjoined to embrace habits that will promote the prevention of the deadly disease and discourage those that spread it. The three tiers of government should devise new strategies to contain the upsurge in HIV/AIDS cases in the country.
We call for adequate funding of existing HIV/AIDS intervention programmes across the country, in view of reported donor fatigue. Since access to HIV treatment is vital to global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat, government should increase access to ART to everyone with HIV. There is need for more effective measures to curtail mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Let there be new resolve by the government and other stakeholders to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. Without doubt, stopping new HIV infections is central to ending AIDS in the country and elsewhere. Henceforth, the government must work towards ensuring that no child is born with HIV in the country.