A whooping sum of $700 million was spent in 2014 in an attempt to halt the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Bilali Camara, Country Coordinator for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said yesterday.
Camara made the disclosure while on a courtesy visit to the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
He said 3.4 million Nigerians are currently living with HIV/AIDS. 58 per cent of these are women and 60,000 children have been infected with the dreaded disease. Nigeria, therefore, needs to increase its funding to fight the scourge.
The UNAIDS Coordinator said Nigeria should tackle the issue urgently. “It is important because children who are our future, 60,000 of them, were infected in 2014.It is an important issue because 170,000 of our brothers and sisters who were having children died of AIDS last year,” he said, adding that the organisation assisted in screening and testing of Nigerians, including pregnant women to prevent the transmission of the virus to babies and the treatment of those infected.
“If you look at the situation in the past few years, we really have a very good result which actually puts Nigeria among countries in the central Africa which were able to stop the spread and reverse the trend of HIV.”
He said the contribution of the Global Fund investment to Nigeria confirmed the need for Nigeria to step up funding towards the elimination of HIV/AIDS.
“If you look at the expenditure for 2014, we have spent actually $700 million and if you look at that amount, only 25 per cent came from domestic resources and the rest came from outside.
“I will be honest with you to say that if you look at the premises, the trend has not changed as many resources are coming from outside and little is coming from inside. That is not the way we have to deal with this issue,”he said.
Gbajabiamila, in his response, stressed the need to promote prevention of the disease rather than treatment in order to fully halt the dreaded disease by year 2020.
On the needed funding, he said from the $700 million spent last year, $515 million was sourced from outside the country, adding that the low funding from Nigeria could stem from a conspiracy theory.
He said the National Assembly will ensure provision of adequate funding and continue to pass relevant legislations when necessary. Gbajabiamila said: “When one looks at the problem from that point of view, then it requires full attention and all hands have to be on deck, including that of the legislature. “It has become obviously a human right problem and issue. We are happy to note that there is provision that by 2020, it would have been eradicated. Whatever we can do as a Parliament towards the realization of that, we will definitely do.”
The second Saturday in September is designation by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 2000 to commemorate World First Aid Day. The term “first aid” refers to the assistance given to anyone suffering a sudden injury or illness. Its main goals are to preserve life and prevent the condition from worsening. It is not always performed by medical personnel. In emergency situations, ordinary people often have to perform first aid to save someone’s life.
First aid does not necessarily require any prior knowledge and can involve improvisation. However, if the person performing first aid doesn’t know what they are doing, they might hurt instead of helping. That is why the IFRC encourages people to undergo basic first aid training or at least educate themselves using any available reliable sources.
World First Aid Day aims at raising awareness of how first aid can prevent injuries and save lives in everyday and crisis situations, as well as at promoting the accessibility of the first aid. Events and activities held on this day focus on first aid training. Every year, a new global theme for the day is chosen, and participants are encouraged to plan events according to the current year’s theme.
