Fashola’s wife to be unveiled as face of infant HIV prevention
By: Chioma Umeha
Lagos state government is worried that despite the existing
facilities and services, the State still contributes significantly to
the unacceptably high national maternal deaths and the national burden
of HIV, due to low utilisation of PMTCT and Family Planning (FP)
services.
The State is one of the 12+1 States which accounts for 70 percent of
the Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV burden in Nigeria with its HIV
prevalence of 5.1 percent based on the 2010 National HIV Sero –
Prevalence Sentinel Survey and its vast population of 21,883,048,
according to the Lagos State Bureau of Statistics.
In view of this, government is set for another round of campaign to
accelerate the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV
and maternal death reduction in the state. The goal is to catalyse high level support for the elimination of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV and maternal deaths through the
mobilisation of strategic stakeholders, including women of influence, to
improve the demand for quality Prevention of Mother-to-Child
Transmission (PMTCT) and to encourage healthy timing and spacing of
pregnancies.
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| A rally to mark HIV/Aids Day, recently. |
The State is working in collaboration with United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS),
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as other relevant
stakeholders to achieve this goal. According to a statement by the Lagos State Ministry of Health, the
campaign will enable infected pregnant mothers to have increased access
to services to prevent their babies from being infected, as well as to
encourage more families to embrace family planning practices. Part of the strategy is to unveil Wife of the Governor, Dame (Mrs)
Abimbola Fashola, as the face of Prevention of Mother-to-Child
Transmission (PMTCT)/Maternal Health in the State.
The strategy will also provide an update on progress towards
elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission (MTCT) of HIV in the State
in the light of the global plan targets highlighting achievements and
gaps. It is also expected to stimulate commitment of critical stakeholders
and provide vital information on PMTCT and a directory of functional
PMTCT sites in the State. The statement stated that UNAIDS is committed to revolutionizing HIV
prevention policies and practices that will ignite policy makers,
opinion leaders and community gate keepers to focus on populations and
programmes that will make a difference in getting to zero new
infections.
One of such programmes is the elimination of vertical transmission of
HIV and the reduction of AIDS-related maternal death by half in 2015.
This mandate is clearly in line with that of UNAIDS zero AIDS related
deaths and UNFPA: delivering a world where every birth is safe and where
every woman is treated with dignity/respect. According to the 2012 projected population figures for Lagos State, there were 1,060,225 pregnant women in that year. At an HIV prevalence of 5.1 percent, about 54,071 pregnant women are
infected with the virus and approximately one-third of whom would, in
the absence of any interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission
of HIV, pass the virus to their babies.
This translates to 16,468 preventable HIV infections among infants in the State during that year alone. The Lagos State maternal mortality ratio of 555/100,000 life-birth is
higher than the national figure of 545/100,000 life birth. This
statistics clearly negates UNFPA’s mandate of a world where every birth
is safe and every child is born free of HIV. It is against this background that UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNICEF are
supporting the Lagos State Government to convene this high-level meeting
of women decision-makers in the State and other critical stakeholders
to identify their roles in the elimination of mother-to-child
transmission of HIV and maternal deaths.
