Borno records 50% drop in HIV/AIDS prevalence -Official

HIV and AIDS prevalence in Borno has dropped from 5.2 per cent to 2.4 per cent, the Borno State Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS has announced. The Executive Secretary, BOSACA, Alhaji Musa Liman, stated this on Monday in Maiduguri in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria. Liman, who said the figure was noticed in 2013, attributed the drop to awareness campaigns, by BOSACA and change in peoples’ behaviour in response to HIV/AIDS programmes. He said the current state of emergency in the area had discouraged many people from engaging in social activities, including clubbing and night parties that were capable of exposing them to unwholesome behaviours. He added that the state of emergency had forced many commercial sex workers to migrate to other places, thereby helping to reduce the spread of the virus. He stressed the need to address stigmatisation against persons living with HIV and AIDS to ease their trauma. “We must address stigma at our various communities so that persons living with the virus can live normal life with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs,’’ he said. Liman said the state government had established 16 anti-retroviral centres in the three geopolitical zones of the state with a view to reducing the spread of the virus. Source: The Punch