The Coordinator, National AIDS/STIs and Viral Hepatitis Control Programme, (NASCP), Dr. Adebola Bashorun has said the federal government along with its partners are targeting to bring in 270,000 people living with HIV for treatment.
Speaking at the opening of the two-day National HIV/AIDS Differentiated Service Delivery Performance Review (DPR) Dissemination, he said said the Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) has impacted the quality of care provided persons living with HIV.
Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rates stands at 1.9 million, with 1,630,000 on treatment.
The DSD is a person-centred approach that simplifies and adapts HIV services across the cascade to reflect the preferences, expectations and needs of people living with and vulnerable to HIV.
Bashorun, who was represented by Dr Nwaokenneya Peter, Deputy Director and Head of Treatment at the NASCP, stated that the country has achieved “Significant milestones in the DSD implementation.”
The first DSD performance review was conducted in 2021 between Akwa Ibom and FCT before it was later extended to cover four more states of Anambra, Lagos, Kaduna and Taraba with the overall objective of evaluating the implementation of DSD for HIV.
“Currently, we have over 1.9m people living with HIV and we have 1.63m on treatment and that means almost all our identified clients are on treatment and we have achieved about 89 per cent in terms of viral suppression in the country.
“This DSD has helped us in achieving this feat and improving service delivery across all the facilities of care in-country. Currently, we are working towards ending AIDS by 2030 if things are put in place,” he said.
Representative of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Yewande Olaifa said the country has achieved a lot through the differentiated service delivery and said the challenge now remains how to sustain the programme, which is largely donor supported.
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