America spent over $4bn on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, envoy says

The U.S Centre for Disease Control and prevention said on Friday in Abuja that it has spent over $4bn on HIV/AIDS response programme since 2004.

The Country Director, Mr. Mahesh Swaminathan, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on the sideline of a conference on “Partnering for Sustainable HIV Epidemic Control in Nigeria.”

The conference, which was organised by CDC for stakeholders in the health sector across the country, sought to discuss the way forward to tackle HIV/AIDS in the country.

He identified Nigeria as the third largest country in the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief programme.

According to him, the programme has contributed about 64 percent of the total HIV investment in Nigeria, as a major recipient of PEPFAR funds.

“CDC has collaborated with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health to support sustainable, country-owned HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes to strengthen the country’s laboratory diseases surveillance.

“Working with nine comprehensive partners and government of Nigeria in the past five years, we scaled up HIV testing and treatment for HIV positive individuals in high burden local government areas.

“We have developed modified prevention plan for high risk population, intervention to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and provided laboratory support for diagnosis.

“Presently, more than 720,000 people are on PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment, approximately four million people have received HIV counseling and testing services in 2017.

“ HIV prevention messages and activities have reached more than 300,000 people identified as most-at-risk, and approximately 50,000 pregnant women received anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV,’’ Swaminathan said.

He said that U.S would continue to collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners to ensure higher level of accountability, transparency and impact of the work in Nigeria.

NAN reports that CDC is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) aimed at promoting best practices in public health services for healthy Nigeria citizens through collaboration with the Federal Government and health partners. (NAN)

Comments

Billionaire businessman denies funding Obasanjo’s coalition

Billionaire businessman and founder of Aiteo Group, Mr. Benedict Peters, has denied social media reports that he is funding the new coalition reportedly being headed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Peters said this in a statement on Friday night. He said, “For the record, I wish to state, categorically and unequivocally, that I am not a financier of the said organisation or any socio-political partisan association or political party in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world. “As an international businessman of repute, I have deliberately stayed away from politics preferring, instead, to focus and give my all to the development of my business interests across the African continent. “Corporate Social Responsibility contributions has seen the Aiteo Group, which I lead, provide investment support in medicine and medical research dedicated to seeking cures for several ailments which affect the African continent as well as investment in sport and sport as a panacea for the develop...

It's time to 'embrace an android' says Labour's deputy leader

Worried that a robot will one day take your job? Don't fear says a senior politician who is urging people to "embrace an android". If machines can take over routine tasks, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson believes, it will liberate people to focus on areas generating more wealth. If properly regulated, he says the growth of automation could create as many jobs as it will eliminate" "I suppose what I am really saying is - robots can set us free." A report earlier this year suggested 30% of British jobs could be threatened by automation by 2030, compared with 38% in the US and 21% in Japan, with manufacturing and retail at the greatest risk. Corbyn: Let workers control robots Will a robot take your job? But Mr Watson, who is also Labour's culture spokesman, said he was much more optimistic that technological change could be a force for economic and social good. Speaking at the launch of a new report into the future of work in the 21st Century, he ...

World’s first sex shop shuts down, declares bankruptcy

Germany’s pioneering sex shop chain, Beate Uhse, said Friday that it has filed for insolvency, as the empire started by a female World War II pilot fails to rise to the challenge posed by erotic e-commerce. In its hey day, the group sold lingerie, erotic films and sex products. Uhse began her foray into erotic business in 1946, when she put together a pamphlet called “Document X” describing how women could avoid pregnancy. In post-war Germany, her advice was in high demand and she sold thousands of copies of her brochures. The mail order business thrived and the former fighter pilot and member of the Luftwaffe opened in 1962 her first shop in the German town of Flensburg. Named Institute of Marital Hygiene, the store selling lingerie and contraceptives became the world’s first sex shop. Her activities often ran counter to the morality of post-war Germany and she was called before the courts in thousands of legal suits filed against her. Yet she remained frank and unashamed about...

hakdown07

Search This Blog