The Nigerian government has launched a National Plan for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS virus by the end of 2015.
According to the Vice President, Mr Namadi Sambo, the plan aims at reviewing existing strategies in order to reduce the heavy burden of HIV/AIDS among women and their infants.
Out of Nigeria’s estimated six million pregnant women annually, between 15 and 45 per cent give birth to infected babies, something the Vice President on Thursday said the government intended to address with the new plan.
According to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), only 61 per cent of Nigeria’s pregnant women visit hospitals for antenatal care and over 200,000 pregnant women test positive to HIV each year.
About 45 per cent of these women give birth to infected babies and the government is hoping that the new program will reduce new infections among infants by 90 per cent and AIDS related maternal deaths by 50 per cent by next year.
To achieve this target, the government hopes to mobilise individual and political commitments toward these objectives.
At least 3.4 million Nigerians are HIV positive, including pregnant women. Out of this number, 1.2 million have no access to drugs.
It is hoped that the initiative would reduce the national burden.