Do You Know Your HIV Status? Know Your Status Today!!!

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has advised Nigerians to ensure they know their HIV/AIDS status before planning marriage.

Prof. John Idoko, the Director General of the agency, in Abuja on Tuesday said that most Nigerians would usually wait until they were about going into marriage before they go for tests to know their status.

“Nigerians should not wait until when planning their marriage or when they are sick before knowing their status. It is advisable to go for voluntary counselling and testing early.

“People wait till when marriage ceremonies are on before knowing their status and most times, when it turns out that the person is HIV position, it affects the couple and both families physiologically.”

Idoko said that when people knew their status early, it would enable them live positively and if possible plan marriage with people of the same status.

He said that HIV and AIDS prevention remained one of the most important public health and development priorities.

On the prevention of the virus from mother to child, Idoko said only one-third of pregnant women in the country were able to access the Prevention from Mother to Child Treatment regime (PMTCT) in the country.

He urged expectant mothers, who are HIV positive, to access the PMTCT, noting that it could reduce mother to child transmission from the present rate of 45 per cent to zero per cent.

The Director-General also said that the country needed a radical behavioural change to fight the virus.

“We need to learn from countries such as Uganda, Thailand and Senegal, which had balanced prevention by handling population intervention with Behaviour Change Communication (BCC).” (NAN)