The National Coordinator, Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Taraba, Mr. Edward Ogenyi on Tuesday said that about 110,849 people are living with the virus in the State.
Ogenyi said this at the commencement of a five-day ‘Demand Generation Activities for HIV and AIDS Service Uptake’ in Jalingo the State capital.
According to Ogenyi, the activities marked the first phase of implementation of the President’s Comprehensive Response Plan for HIV and AIDS, funded by NACA/SURE-P HIV/AIDS Programme, launched in July, 2013.
He affirmed, “Taraba HIV prevalence is 10.5 per cent which is far above National average of 4.1 per cent according to the 2013 National Reproductive Health Survey report.
“One of the major aims of PCRP is to avail 80 million Nigerians the opportunity to know their HIV status.
“But due to limited resources, Taraba and Abia are selected for the implementation of NACA/SURE-P HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support.”
The Coordinator observed that out of the 110,849 people living with the virus in the State, only 27,000 were currently receiving treatment.
He added that only 700,000 out of the national prevalence of 3.5 million are currently on treatment.
Ogenyi appealed to the Taraba House of Assembly to include HIV and AIDS in its budgetary allocation for next year.
Team Leader, Taraba Project Implementation on HIV/AIDS Response, Dr. Musa Obadiah, disclosed that the Taraba State Government had approved the sum of N500m to fight the scourge in 2015.
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