The federal government has
launched a nationwide campaign to help in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the
country.
The Undetectable Equals
Untransmittable (U=U) campaign was launched in Abuja on Monday by the federal
ministry of health and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in
collaboration with the US president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
The U=U campaign is an initiative
which teaches that people living with HIV who have an undetectable viral load
cannot not transmit HIV to their sexual partners.
Aliyu Gambo, NACA
director-general, said the objective of the campaign is to ensure that people
will get tested and, if HIV positive, start and stay on treatment to help
achieve viral suppression.
“Today we stand in solidarity
with Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS. The evidence that people infected with HIV
who are virally suppressed cannot sexually transmit the virus to the HIV
negative partners has been available since 2000,” he said.
“Repeated studies found no single
virally suppressed HIV positive individuals, transmitting HIV infections to
their partners. Therefore, when Nigeria says undetectable viral load equals
untransmittable virus, Nigeria is joining the international community in basing
her position on solid scientific evidence.”
Anthony Okwuosah, senior
technical adviser at the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN), said once
an individual living with HIV is taking the medication properly and their viral
load is undetectable, “you cannot transmit virus to somebody who is negative
even without protection during sex”.
“The essence is that for anybody
who is positive and takes an effective drug consistently and is tested and
found to be undetectable, he or she cannot transmit the infection,” he added.
Erasmus Morah, country director
for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), spoke of the need
for care for communities identified as the vulnerable and marginalised
especially those “who already have some issues before HIV came on board”.
“We are talking about gaymen,
transgender, sex workers, prisoners, people who inject drugs, young women and
girls,” he said.
“Why does the UN find them so
special? They demand for people’s rights to protection and dignity; they give
voice to the voiceless; they provide peer support to one another and more
importantly, they fight stigma and discrimination.”
Abdulmalik Ibrahim, national
coordinator of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, said the campaign is a
welcome development and encouraged people to key into it.
“With this campaign, it is high
time for us to engage more and inform our people that they should come out and
continue with their medication,” he said, adding: “Stigma is still an issue but
with this development, people can still come out confidently.”
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