 |
| United Nations Children's Fund |
By: Amby Uneze
A United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) expert on
HIV/AIDS, Dr. Femi Adeyemi has condemned the second position ranking of Nigeria
in the global burden of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of
Human Immune Virus (HIV) on global HIV chart.
Adeyemi stated this at the beginning of a 3-day zonal
meeting of journalists and media practitioners on public advocacy and alliance
building for PMTCT services in four states of Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River and
Imo holding in Eket, Akwa Ibom state.
Adeyemi, who gave an overview of PMTCT, including national
targets said that the annual births in the country stood at six million while
56 percent of pregnant women attend ante-natal clinic at least once while four
percent attend at least four times, putting national average at 4.1 percent.
According to him, the PMTCT strategies include; primary
prevention of HIV in women of reproductive age group, prevention of unintended
pregnancy and prevention of mother-to child transmission, stating that reducing
the incident of PMTCT involved closing the gap among child-bearing women,
pregnant women living with HIV and HIV uninfected women and children.
He added that the global plan for PMTCT was launched in 2011
after a global consultation was held in November 2010, stressing that the plan
was aimed at reducing HIV infections among children by 90 percent, and reducing
HIV related deaths as the national target was to reduce by 50 percent of HIV
incidence among 15 - 49 years old women by 2015.
In their separate presentations, the Communications officer
of UNICEF A-Field office, Enugu, Mrs. Ijeoma Onuoha-Ogwe and the FCT
Co-ordinator of Journalists Alliance for PMTCT (JAPiN), Mrs. Abimbola Katherine
Amosun urged Journalists to be proactive in reporting issues relating to women
and children, as it was the duty of the media to carry persistence campaign
concerning the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Onuoha-Ogwe said that the issue of equity had not been
achieved in the distribution of rights to children, adding that there still
remain a widening disparity for children as poverty accounted for the reason
why rights of children were not met. She also maintained that financial food
crises, climate change and humanitarian crises contributed to the disparity and
urged the media to take action to the children.
Amosun said that the reason for establishing JAPiN was to
address the issue of media partnership with the other related agencies to
tackle PMTCT in the country, as the organization disseminates information about
prevention, control, and treatment of HIV particularly as it affects women and
children.
Declaring the workshop open the Akwa Ibom State,
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bassey Antai expressed the global desire to have
zero new infections which could be achieved through elimination of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
He said the HIV prevalence in the four junta states was
high, adding that with the partnership with the media and UNICEF, the problem
would be reduced or eliminated in no distance time.
The commissioner who was represented by the state AIDS
Programme Co-ordinator, Dr. John Markson therefore urged the participants to
faction a proactive approach that would be applied to bring the problem to its
minimal level in the zone.
No comments:
Post a Comment