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Health

AIDS Kill 87 Persons In Niger State In 2018 Alone

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See Reports Of AIDS In 2018

The last has not been heard of the killer disease, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom, AIDS as 87 people had died from it in 2018. Niger state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mustapha Mohammed Jibril disclosed.

He said that government believe that there are much more deaths resulting from AIDS in the state that are not being recorded because a lot of people tend to hide their status.

The Commissioner also said that out of 51,712 pregnant women who were tested across the 25 facilities, 731 were discovered to be positive and received ARV prophylaxis.

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The Commissioner made this disclosure at a press conference to commemorate the 2018 World AIDS Day.

He stated that the state had experienced a progressive decrease in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS from 6.2 per cent to 1.7 per cent adding that the positivity rate among pregnant women is 0.7 per cent.

“For the year under review, a total of 137,253 individuals received HIV testing services of which 5,612 clients were found to be HIV positive, all the clients have been enrolled into ART services.

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Jibril lamented that stigma and discrimination still remains an enormous barrier to effective fight against HIV and AIDS epidemic in the state as clients still find it difficult to disclose their HIV status for fear of rejection from relations and the community.

This will hinder 90-90-90 global targets of achieving 90 per cent of people living with HIV knowing their HIV status. I believe that people attitude need to change in order to diminishing stigma.”