‘25,000 have HIV/AIDS in Niger’

Dipo Laleye Minna - 08.01.2008

THE HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Niger State has been on the increase with 25,000 people or 5.3 per cent of the population said to be carrying the disease.

The Director General of the agency in charge of HIV/AIDS in the state, Alhaji Baba Umaru, disclosed this on Monday in Minna. He said the state was now ranked 11 on the scale of HIV/AIDS in the country.

Alhaji Umaru said the spread of the disease was becoming a national embarrassment because the country, which ranked third on the global index, now placed second with the possibility of being the most vulnerable country in the world if the trend was not checked.

He said HIV/AIDS had taken its toll on the active sector of the society, thereby eroding the socio-economic development of the country.

He said if the spread was not checked, it would also defeat the government’s vision of making the state one of the best three economically developed in the country by 2020.

Alhaji Umaru disclosed that counselling centres had been opened at Kontagora, Minna, Bida, Suleja, New Bussa, and Tugan Magajiya, adding that more centres would be opened in the rural areas to give te people at the grassroots access to the facility.