285m packets of condoms distributed in 2007 - Osotimehin

Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja - 25.06.2008

Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, has said that over 285 million packets of condoms were distributed in 2007, which represented 11 per cent increase over the previous year.

This, according to him, was one of the measures to prevent the spread of the disease in the society.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, Osotimehin said the number of HIV counselling and testing sites had increased to 813 with evidence that about three million Nigerians had been counselled and tested.

According to him “as at the end of the first quarter of 2008, we have provided access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission in 250 sites across the nation, a major change from 2006, when there were only 50.

“With regards to our anti-retroviral treatment, cumulatively, 269,000 People Living with AIDS (PLWA) have accessed treatment, out of the estimated 500,000 that need treatment.”