HIV/AIDS

Police in Cameroon have arrested nine people on suspicion of homosexuality, most of them at an HIV/AIDS care centre, an LGBT rights lawyer said on Thursday.

The Federal Government on Monday in Abuja restated its commitment to end the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) scourge in the country.

The Kano State Consumer Protection Council (CPC) yesterday pledged to conduct compulsory HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis tests for staff of restaurants, eateries, bakeries and other food processing companies in the state.

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS on Friday cautioned young people to avoid risky sexual behaviour, while celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Kano State Government is to enrol 553 people living with HIV/AIDS to access free healthcare services, Aminu Bello-Sani, the Public Relations Officer, Kano State Agency for the Control of Aids (KSACA) disclosed in a statement on Monday, in Kano.

Dino Melaye, a former Nigerian senator, has urged Nigerians not to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which has killed thousands across the world and almost two thousand people in Nigeria.

The Youth Empowerment and Development Initiative, YEDI, has urged the federal and state government not to allow the quest to tackle COVID-19 pandemic to overshadow the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

Medical laboratory scientists in the country have asked the federal government to establish vaccine production factories as week as effective testing laboratories across the six geopolitical zones.

The Bauchi State Government on Tuesday said HIV/AIDS prevalence in the state significantly dropped from 6.8 per cent recorded in 2001 to 0.4 per cent in 2019.

The Federal Government on Tuesday expressed optimism that COVID-19 would soon be a thing of the past in Nigeria as two vaccines under trial have more than 90 per cent efficacy to end the disease.

United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, on Tuesday, said key populations such as sex workers and gay men accounted for 50 per cent of new HIV cases in the world.

The United States has said more than $6bn has been invested in Nigeria’s HIV/AID control, even as more than one million women and children are currently on HIV treatment through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

While COVID-19 has devastated communities worldwide and remained in the spotlight since last year, the world must keep fighting to protect gains made against HIV/AIDS—a pandemic that has been raging for over 30 years and remains a global public health crisis.

Dr Erasmus Morah, the Country Representative, Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), says no fewer than 1.6 million Nigerians died of HIV/AIDS since the outbreak of the epidemic in 1985.

As Nigerians prepare for the World AIDS Day, commercial sex workers in Sokoto say they have adopted the principle of “no condom, no sex” as part of efforts to protect themselves from contracting HIV virus.

Pathfinder International has urged Federal Government to decentralise her policies on implementation of Family Planning (FP) measures, considering the country’s cultural and religious diversity.

The United Nations on Tuesday revealed that Nigeria has been ranked highest in Drug Use Prevalence rate in the world with 14.3 per cent as against 5.3 per cent for the global community.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has shed light on the “drug integrity test” for intending couples.

The senator representing Sokoto East senatorial district Ibrahim Gobir on Tuesday expressed the need to give attention to people with mental challenges.

Washington has become increasingly concerned about the dispute over Ethiopia’s move to keep filling the reservoir behind the 145-meter (475-foot) tall hydropower dam, which the two downstream countries say threatens their water supplies, the State Department said.

A Paediatric Nurse and HIV Counselor, Mrs Roseline Solarin, has disclosed that no fewer than 1.9million Nigerians are living with HIV/AIDs.

This raised the total number of confirmed cases in Kenya to 12,268 and the total number of samples tested since March 13, when the country's first Covid-19 cases was confirmed, to 266,102.