NEWS WIRE: Nigeria: HIV-Positive Army Personnel Get Micro-Credit Facility

Source: allAfica.com.

Original article available here.

LAGOS, May 23 – Nigeria Army yesterday in Kaduna disbursed NGN 50,000 (USD 425) each as micro-credit facility to about 100 of its personnel who have tested positive to HIV/AIDS so that they can commence some income generating activities.

Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Fidelia Akuabata, who explained that the gesture is a way of showing the much needed support and care to those who have already tested positive said the credit facility is intended to assist in mitigating the economic impact of the disease on the affected families.

Nigeria Army also launched the revised edition of the Armed Forces HIV/AIDS Control Policy Guidelines which is to guide HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities in the Nigeria Armed Forces.

It also commissioned a modernized and extended laboratory and Water Scheme at the 44 Nigeria Army Reference Hospital in the state, which, according to the Minster, symbolizes the commitment of the administration of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to the continued fight against HIV/AIDS in both the military and civilian population.

Represented by Maj. Gen. AA Injoku (rtd), Mrs. Akuabata also revealed that in continuation of the government’s efforts in the provision of comprehensive HIV/AIDS services to the military, the Ministry of Defence, in collaboration with the United States Department of Defence (DoD) set up 14 military health care service centers. These according to her are spread across the country in order to make HIV/AIDS care services more accessible to the troops, their families and other Nigerians, adding that six more centers will be activated before the end of the year.

The Minister said the programme is open to everyone who wants to access the services at the various centers, and added that as at March this year, the programme had attended to 71, 212 people, counseled 59,381, while 59,381 were screened for HIV with 12,532 testing positive.

The Minister disclosed that 6,077 are currently on Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) while 85 per cent of those attended to are non-military personnel.

The coordinator of the Armed Forces Programme on HIV/AIDS Control (AFPAC), Col. Simeon Ekanem who spoke earlier said that due to the concerted effort employed by the military in addressing the high rate of infection among military personnel, present evidence shows a great reduction of the epidemic in the Armed Forces.

“The earlier widely reported high prevalence of the epidemic is declining in line with the national figures.

“A recent integrated behavioral and social survey indicated that the level of knowledge and adoption of preventive practices tended to be higher among military respondents than the general population with corresponding lower prevalence among the sampled military population,” he said.

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