Lagos to end new HIV infections by 2030

The Lagos State Government has reiterated its commitment to end new HIV infections by 2030.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, Dr. Monsurat Adeleke stated this at the Family Life and HIV Education quarterly coordination meeting held on Tuesday.

She said there was the need to sensitise the youth on abstinence and the use of condom.

She said, “Last year, the governor supported the state in the reactivation of family life on HIV/AIDS education in 354 public schools in the state. We trained 40 master trainers. All these trainers are teachers, they went back to all the districts and we are cascading it to the teachers in schools.

“Basically, what we are trying to achieve is increasing awareness in the public secondary schools. We are targeting the adolescent youth population which accounts for about 43 per cent of our population. They have very low-risk perception when it comes to risky sexual behaviours. We are emphasising on this education, because our target is to eliminate completely new infections on HIV by the year 2030.

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“Our emphasis is basically on abstinence but we know that is not going to happen completely, so, we also raise awareness on the use of condoms. We tell them about safe sex but this is not the first option.”

She said the event was organised for the teachers to identify challenges being face in HIV response as well as to provide solutions.

“We started with the index case in 1986, now we are about 1.3 per cent in terms of HIV burden. If you extrapolate that to our population, it is still a lot. We know that we have to attack it in every aspect. Yes, it is no longer a death sentence, but we are focusing on the youth to fight new infections,” Adeleke added.