The Yobe State Agency for the Control of AIDS, YOSACA, has announced that it expanded the HIV testing services to all the existing 178 political wards in the state.
This was made possible with the support of the Save One Million Life programme which released the sum of over N21 million to YOSACA.
The prevalence rate of HIV in Yobe State has dropped from 2.1% in 2010 to 1.5% in the last national survey in 2014.
The Executive Director, YOSACA, Ali Kime, disclosed these in Damaturu at the occasion of the commemoration of the 2017 World AIDS Day, a day set aside for raising awareness about the AIDS pandemic across the world.
According to him, the drop in the prevalence rate could be largely attributed to the massive focus on preventive intervention instituted by the state government through YOSACA in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders in the state.
“HIV infection in Yobe was reported in 1989, since then, the epidemic has steadily increased from 1.9% in 1991, to 3.58% in 2001 to 3.8% in 2003, retrogressing to 3.7% in 2005 and in 2008 to 2.7%. The prevelance further declined to 2.1% in 2010 and 1.5% in 2014. This can be largely attributed to the focus on preventive interventions instituted by the state government through the State Agency for the Control of AIDS and working with a wide range of stakeholders involved in the state HIV and AIDS response,” Ali Kime said.
Some of the milestones recorded by YOSACA in the last year include the procurement and distribution of environmental and social safe guard to 53 health facilities across Yobe State at the cost of N4.5million; procurement of RTKs, OIS drugs, laboratory reagents and medical consumables worth N19,600,000 for the six comprehensive ART sites in the state based on the current USG policy; printing and distribution of cards to support test and treat policy at the cost of over N400,000, among others
