By
Lagos – Civil Society For HIV/AIDS in Nigeria
(CISHAN), has called on Nigerians to beware of all false claims for HIV vaccine
or cure, stressing that there is no known vaccine nor scientific cure yet for
the deadly virus.
CISHAN believes that every false claims to HIV
vaccine and cure endangers the lives of the populace, including the over three
million Nigerians living with the virus.
It thus pledged support for global, regional and
national efforts towards HIV vaccine and cure research, adding that it would
continue to work with its partner-New HIV Vaccine And Microbicide Advocacy
(NHVMAS) on public education, updates and awareness about new development in
the field of HIV vaccine and cure research.
“CISHAN, its constituents coordinating entities
and its over 4,000memebers hereby call on the Nigeria public to beware of all
false claims for a HIV vaccine or a HIV cure,” the group partly stated in a
statement through its contact person, Mr. Walter Ugwuocha.
However, during a recent media roundtable in
commemoration of HIV vaccine awareness day, organised by NHVMAS in
collaboration with Journalists Against AIDS Nigeria, Dr. Ernest Ekong noted
that though the research on HIV cure has been difficult, researchers are in not
giving up.
According to him, resaerchers are building on
lessons from: “Three decades of vaccine research as well as the large body of
research that led to the discovery of the HIV treatments in use today.”
NHVMAS on its part called on the government to
invest in vaccine researches in order for the nation not to be left behind in
the global HIV response.
