US donates $90 million for HIV survey in Nigeria

The United States Government has donated about $90 million to sponsor the forthcoming Human Immune Virus (HIV) survey in Nigeria. Nigeria is the 12th country conducting this survey.

Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made this known on Thursday in Abuja, during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), and the United States government.

The survey tagged Nigeria Aids Indicators and Impact Survey (NAIIS), would begin in June and last for about six months across the country, aims to reach a sample size of about 170,000 people.

According to the minister, the U.S government was supporting the survey both directly and indirectly through other partners, to further reduce the HIV burden in Nigeria.

“The resources for the survey is largely from the US government. Directly they are giving us about $90million and indirectly they are working with other partners to ensure the success of the survey.

“The survey will put behind us the concept of making guess work in terms of burden of HIV disease in Nigeria. We do not know how many people are infected, so this study will enable us get a precise number.

“This survey is not only about HIV, but about hepatitis B and C. This survey will also help us to drive forward the agenda to cure Nigeria of hepatitis C. As you know, hepatitis C now has a cure.

“Also, people who tests positive will be placed on treatment, as having HIV is not the end of the world,” he said.

Adewole however urge Nigerians to exclude politics from this survey, which was the largest HIV survey to be done in the world.

“For us as a country, we owe it a duty as a government to make sure that it works. And to ensure that politics is excluded from the entire work. Though it is mainly a scientific process and we will publish the data as it is. It will be totally free of politics and free of government interference so we can discover the real state of HIV in the country. It will serve as a drive to our effort to control the epidemic,” he added.

The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Sani Aliyu, said the survey would help solve the problem of accurate data and provide a more precise information on the coverage of HIV in Nigeria.

While urging Nigerians to make themselves available for the survey to enable accurate and precise results, he stressed that every Nigerian was needed to make the survey a success.

Also speaking, the U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Stuart Symington, disclosed that if properly conducted, l the survey, would serve as an example to the rest of the world that the HIV epidemic could be brought under control.

“It is the joy of everybody in the United States to make Nigerians healthy. This survey, this partnership, this opportunity will set an example for Nigeria and to the whole world.

“This is in the power of every Nigerian to participate in the survey. In the world today, people are trying to do what no human being have ever done before and that is to bring to a close a terrible disease without a proven cure and the remedy here is us.

“An epidemic control has not yet been achieved anywhere, but with this effort the government of Nigeria in partnership with this extra ordinary team of partners funded by every man, woman and child in the United States of America, a huge success will be achieved. As one thing everyone can do this year, is to help make this survey a success,” he said.