Sundiata Post – Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is still prevalent in most countries in West and Central Africa, spreading among young population, a new report of the United Nations AIDS programme shows.
The 2023 HIV/AIDS report released by the UN Programme on HIV (UNAIDS) Regional Office for West and Central Africa Tuesday evening in Dakar, Senegal indicates high numbers of new infections among people from key populations, mostly adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 24.
In a remark during the release of the report, Regional Director, UNAIDS Regional Office for Western and Central Africa, Berthilde Gahongayire, said the region’s AIDS situation is at crossroad, calling for domestic funding from countries to boost progress towards prevention of the infection in 2025.
“We are at a crossroads, and we need extra miles’ effort to increase funding and make the target of ending AIDS possible by 2030,” she declared.
She said West and Central Africa required $2.2 billion (about N3.5 trillion) to step up the prevention programme and testing.
Despite a decline in new cases from 450,000 in 2010 to 196,000 now, the number of HIV infected persons still remained high among girls and young people in the region, particularly in Nigeria, according to the report.
The report also revealed that the West and Central Africa region have 20 percent of pregnant women living with HIV globally, with half of them not on treatment.
The report titled the ‘Urgency of Now,’ shows challenges facing HIV/AIDS prevention and spread of the infection in the region, including stigmatisation, discrimination, early marriage and lack of information.
“Both HIV prevention and society enable programmes require a boost in domestic funding,” the report said.
It called on leaders in the counties to bring strong political commitment into the effort to end HIV by 2030.
According to health experts, HIV is an infection that attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the white blood cells.
