Agitation: HIV/Aids budget stirs protest in House of Reps

– N1.5 billion has been allotted for tackling HIV/AIDS in 2016

– Reps disagree with budgetary provisions for tackling the epidemic

– Experts reveal that it costs about N31,000 annually for a HIV patient to live healthy

– About N57.7 billion is required to tackle HIV/AIDS and take care of 1, 844, 618 infected people.

Reports suggest that tackling the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Nigeria is still not in sight, as budgetary provisions for tackling the epidemic in 2016 is just N1.5 billion.

The House Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Malaria Control have protested the development, saying that the N1.5 billion provision is a drop from the N10 billion that was made available to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) in 2015.

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According to Davematics Ombugadu, the chairman of the committee, N57 billion would be required to tackle the HIV scourge in the country and as such the N1.5 billion allocation is too paltry.

Rep Ombugadu disclosed this when he presented the 2016 budget defence reports of Ministries Departments and Agencies under the committee to the Appropriation Committee.

He said: “This is a significant reduction from the N10 billion given to it last year to provide comprehensive HIV/AIDS services in Taraba and Abia states under the defunct SURE-P programme.

“Nigeria and the rest of the global AIDS community have adopted the 90-90-90 target by 2030 and to achieve this, the government of Nigeria has to put money into the national response to AIDS.

“Otherwise we will have another wave of HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.”

“It is with this great concern that the Chairman is requested to graciously approve the additional sum of N25 billion to NACA,’’ he added.

Ombugadu in his analysis of cost of treating People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) said that it costs N31, 243 to treat a patient per annum.

According to him, there are about 3.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

“The number of PLWHA to be placed on ART based on 90-90-90 is 2,592,000, the number of PLWHA currently on ART is 747, 382 and National treatment gap based on 90-90-90 target 1, 844, 618.

“Cost of placing 1, 844, 618 PLWHA on ART per annum is N57.7 billion,’’ Ombugadu said.

He said that the United States government which is responsible for about 95 percent of the HIV/AIDS treatment programmes had scaled down its scale-up of services to only 37 local government areas in Nigeria.

“Leaving a huge gap of supporting scale-up of services in the remaining 737 LGAs.

In addition, the US government has also withdrawn support for laboratory services which the PLWHIV on ART requires to conduct periodically to monitor his state of health,’’ he said.

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