The Ministry of Health Anambra State in collaboration with the Anambra State Aids Control Agency (ANSACA) has held a three-Day Stakeholders’ Sensitization Meeting for the development of Anambra State HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2025 to 2027.
The meeting which started on Wednesday, May 14 created avenue for the concerned parties to plan for all the activities that would address all the HIV thematic areas in terms of treatment, prevention, care, support and equally to address gender and human right issues in the state so as to ensure that Anambra State achieved its HIV epidemic control schedule which is aimed at ending the scourge by the year 2030.
Addressing the meeting, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike said that for the expected result in the control of HIV/AIDS to be well achieved, the stakeholders as well as health workers so concerned need to be trained and retrained on the concept of the disease especially in the handling of the affected persons vis-à-vis the administration of the ailment.
“We need people that will counsel women that are already positive in the facilities. We still need training, especially online-training and it is going to be compulsory because it is important that we have this training so we will not make mistakes.
“Subsequently we should have the training like in two weeks or three weeks, we re going to involve professionals.
“I have been able to work with some people and as they don’t know how to do anything you asked them to do, what they will do is to cause commotion and chase the persons away in order to prevent them from exposing themselves and you won’t blame them because you have not taught them how to do it.
“We will do it every Monday and all these stakeholders here will be involved in the webinar so we have to get the ICT experts who will teach all the OICs, all the people that are drawn in the General Hospitals and most of our doctors.’’
While commenting on the reason for the convergence, the ANSACA Programme Manager, Mr. Johnbosco Ementa said, “for this day 1, we invited key stakeholders who the Agency is collaborating with in achieving its desired goals.
“These stakeholders are the Ministry of Health, under the leadership of our Commissioner, Dr. Afam Obidike. We equally have the National Orientation Agency here because of the role they play in our society; we have the lead implementing partner, the Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNI). It is known that they man almost all the Health Facilities in Anambra State in the provision of HIV treatment, prevention and care for all the people living with HIV.
“We have the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), they have some facilities they are incharge of in Anambra State, providing HIV treatments and the rest of them. We have in our midst National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), incharge of HIV response in the country. We have the zonal coordinator here present with the NACA staff who will be providing technical guidance and a consultant for this strategic plan.
“We also have Ministries of Youth Development and Women Afairs represented by their Permanent Secretaries and Commissioners and we have the Secretyary to the State Government in our presence represented by Mr. Ifeanyi Emenari, HOD of Special Duties in the Office of the SSG, we have a whole lot of key stakeholders in the field of HIV.
“So in this room are gathered all the stakeholders in all different areas of HIV interventions to leverage on our experience over the years that we have programmed on the HIV space for us to bring out a certain plan that aligns with the National Response so that at the end of the day we will not be doing duplication of duties or of programmes, people will be doing that that will be targeted at the integration of TB, HIV and malaria, the one that will help us to achieve a sustainable plan where Government takes ownership.
“If we must plan, we must have a plan that will directly ensure that states take over their HIV response and leaveraging on our strength from different stakeholders where we have a wholistic plan that will target all the interventions to ensure that pregnant women in Anambra State who are living with HIV AIDS all got enrolled in our treatment that will ensure that no child born of a pregnat woman will have HIV.
“We want to make it possible that people who have this virus will go to our facilities to know their statuses, to receive this treatment free and we equally have ASHIA in our midst; right now we are doing enrolment of people living with HIV in our different facilities. People should go to our facilities to access free treatment to help them achieve improved health attitude.
“It is going to be a very long day and we are going to have a two other days for technical sessions where we will be dividing ourselves into different groups to ensure that we come out with a very sound result oriented Strategic plan.’’
Echezona Okafor.
