NACA Seeks Increased Demand For HIV Services

 The Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Gambo Aliyu, on Wednesday, urged Nigerians to demand HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care services for adequate coverage and to meet the United Nations target of ending AIDS by 2030.

Aliyu said this at a two-day workshop training for social media influencers, bloggers, and journalists in Abuja.

He also said though HIV does not have a cure, it no longer kills and it can be managed successfully.

He said, “People have been living with this virus; some for the last 30 years and some more than 30 years. However, we want people to understand that fighting HIV begins with them. We have had the opportunity to engage different population groups. One population group that has been hard to find and very difficult are the adolescent and young persons.



“We believe social media influencers will help us connect to this important population the way we want to be connected with and that is why we decided to reach out so they can understand the message and differentiate between the real news and the fake news.

“People should understand that if you have HIV today, you can walk into our facility and demand HIV service; you’re not only doing good to yourself but you’re doing good to all of us because you’re helping us to control HIV.

We want people to begin to demand for HIV services instead of us going after people and looking for them to get tested and treated.”