A female Aids patient has said that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Aids is not a death sentence.
The female aids patient who is also the coordinator of persons living with HIV/AIDs, Peace Elijah made this remark while speaking with journalists during this year’s world aids day celebration at the Ministry of Justice Conference Hall.
According to Peace Elijah, she is very strong an healthy and is living like other healthy persons in the society, saying that she has children who are positive with the scourge as well as those who are negative to the scourge yet they are living fine with her with no health challenges.
Peace Elijah is one of the female coordinators and educator to persons living with HIV/AIDS in the state.
She disclosed that the rate at which the scourge initially came in the state was high but in the state has now reduced, advising persons living with the scourge to maintained regular checkup while taking their recommended drugs and measures to remain healthy.
She also urged the public to stop the stigmatization of persons living with Aids as it is not a death sentence adding that Aids is managed like Diabetes, hypertension and like other diseases in the society.
Encouraging the public to go for the test to know their HIV/AIDS status from all available health centre, said it is free, stressing that the early one knows one status the better to manage.
In the same vein, Dr. Sampson Parker, Commissioner of Health Rivers State corroborated Peace Elijah’s remark while urging the public to stop stigmatization of persons living with the scourge.
Dr. Parker revealed that “this administration considers the control of HIV an activity of cardinal public healthy importance hence I have constituted a state HIV health sector control team to maximize this window of opportunity and close the gap, indeed, we have created very significant accesses to HIV services all over the state, service leveraging on the new model primary health centres of the state government. The state now has 303 PHCs offering PMTCT services from initial 15 sites at the advent of this administration.
He further hinted that, there are currently 23 comprehensive treatment sites in the state as compare to only six comprehensive sites a few years ago. We have also extensively engaged the private health sector for PMTCT service delivery in order to create equitable access while at the same time, retaining the socialist nature of HIV service delivery “the state has also acquire new laboratory machines for CD4 comit, chemistry and haematology at the young comprehensive treatment sites in order to improve the quality of service delivery.
This year world Aids day celebration was tagged “close the gap”. ###
Allanso Jonathan Allanso
