World AIDS Day
Kano records 4,728 cases upon World AIDS Day. According to the Kano State government, 4,728 people tested positive for HIV from January 2023 until the present.
Dr. Abubakar Labaran, the state’s Commissioner for Health, made the announcement while speaking at this year’s World AIDS Day observance on Friday.
According to him, the overall number of people living with the condition and undergoing treatment in the state is 46,732.
Labaran noted that the state has improved its methods to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission from mother to child by effectively testing 95 percent of all pregnant women during their initial ANC visits to the hospital, with only 0.04 percent not testing positive.
“From January 2023 to date, we have tested 138,430 people for HIV, found 4,728 positive, and successfully started 4,140 new HIV-infected people on ART.”
“Currently, the state has 46,732 HIV patients receiving treatment.”
“We have improved our strategies to halt mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by successfully conducting HIV testing for 95 per cent of all pregnant women during their first ANC visit, out of which only 0.04 per cent turned HIV positive,” he went on to say.
Labaran went on to explain the state government’s efforts in controlling the problem, saying that for the first time, the state has attained an HIV budget target of 3%, or N2 billion of the total health budget, in the proposed budget submitted to the Kano State House of Assembly.
The event, with the subject “Let Communities Lead,” was co-organized by USAID and other partners.
The commissioner thanked partners such as USAID, LHSS, NEPWHAN, and KanSLAM for their lobbying efforts.
Dr. Usman Bashir, Director General of the State Agency for Control of AIDS, stated in his remarks that the agency has brought on board 600 people living with AIDS to benefit from the state government’s free healthcare service package.
“Most of the beneficiaries are children of those who died of HIV, as well as those children living with the disease,” he said.