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Comprehensive health care for Oyo HIV/AIDS patients
By Sola Shittu
Reporter, Ibadan
Plans are underway to ensure that people
already infected with HIV/AIDS will be able to receive comprehensive health
care including anti-retroviral drug at Oyo State Specialist Hospital, Ring
Road, Ibadan.
Governor Rashidi Ladoja, who disclosed
this in Ibadan at the launching of the state’s HIV/AIDS Programme
Development Project also disclosed that orphan and vulnerable child care centre
has been established in the state to cater for children whose parents died of
AIDS.
Ladoja regretted that many people
suffering from AIDS are not killed by the disease itself but by the stigma
surrounding it, saying it is in view of the above that his government has
resolved to stamp out HIV/AIDS epidemic in Oyo State.
“My government through the project
will provide funds for line ministries, local governments, non-governmental
organisations, and people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as faith-based organisations
and associations. This will enable them to carry out various intervention
activities including treatments, care and support which I believe will lead to
a sustained fall in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Oyo State,” said
Ladoja.
He added that, his government has
released the sum of N10 million counterpart funds required to access the World
Bank/DA loan and reconstitute the Oyo State Action Committee on AIDS (OSACA) of
which he is the statutory chairman. Ladoja told the gathering that the state plan
of action for combating HIV/AIDS recently released will be religiously
implemented.
The governor expressed the belief that
medical science alone cannot overcome AIDS, saying tools to contain the spread
of HIV and prolong life of people with AIDS exist. But regrettably, the
governor said, in 2003, five million new HIV infections occurred and three
million men, women and children died of AIDS.
“In the last few years, the world
has begun to realise that HIV/AIDS is indeed a world-scale pandemic, which has
spread fastest and furthest in Africa including Nigeria and it appears we are
no longer being let to face this disaster alone,” said Ladoja.
According to him, the human toll of AIDS is a tragic reality
being experienced by everybody. “AIDS is certainly reversing the gains
made in social and economic development and has become the major cause of
illness and death among the young, and middle age adults, depriving households
and society of critical human resource base,”he added.
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