Anti-retroviral Drugs: Experts Worry Over Fate Of 15m Nigerians With HIV
By: Chioma Umeha There is anxiety over Nigeria's preparedness to meet the Global AIDS Response Programme (GARPR) target. With barely 18 month to the GARPR deadline, fears are rife that the country may miss the target. According to the GARPR target, 15 million people living with HIV should be treated with antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs. This is because an estimated 1,449,166 still cannot access ARVs after 26 years that AIDS was first reported in the country, even as 3,459,363 people live with HIV (PLWH). This issue may be a big deterrent to the attainment of the 2015 Global AIDS Response Program (GARPR) indicator and target four according to experts. The latest Global AIDS Response Country Progress Report (GARPR) from National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) shows that Nigeria accounts for 73.4 per cent gap in the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy in low and middle income countries, by region, from 2002 to 2011. Members of Good Living Initiative