By Ojoma Akor
The National AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and STIs Control Programme (NASCP) of the federal ministry of health and social welfare is set to hold a national HIV health sector symposium.
The symposium themed “Advancing PMTCT and Pediatric Treatment Coverage in Nigeria” will be held between Tuesday 22 July and Wednesday 23 July in Abuja.
Briefing newsmen Monday in Abuja, National Coordinator of NASCP, Dr Adebobola Bashorun said NASCP has prioritized efforts in paediatric HIV and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) through policy, systems strengthening, innovation, and partnerships.
He said an estimated 1.9 million people are living with HIV with children representing 67,000, a drop of from over 100,000 in 2023.
He said some key achievements of NASCP, are reduction in Mother-to-Child Transmission, Expansion of service delivery points (SDPs), introduction of point-of-care technologies, pediatric antiretroviral therapy ( ART) access, strategic innovations, among others.
Dr Bashorun said through sustained PMTCT scale-up, Nigeria has reduced vertical transmission rates significantly, with over 90% of identified HIV-positive pregnant women receiving ART to prevent transmission from 34% in 2023 to 63% in 2024.
On expansion of service delivery points (SDPs), he said , “From just 6,000 PMTCT sites, Nigeria now has over 40,000 functional SDPs, offering HIV testing and care for pregnant women and children, using the Hub-and-Spoke model.”
He highlighted that NASCP has deployed 85 mPIMA machines and expanded GeneXpert platforms from 103 to 141 sites, improving Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and prompt ART initiation in newborns.
The NASCP national coordinator said in line with WHO recommendations, the organization has integrated child-friendly ART formulations, including DTG10mg, and facilitated multi-month dispensing (MMD) for improved adherence and retention.
He said, “Plans are ongoing to introduce TAF into the programme. ART coverage increased from 30% in 2023 to 74% in 2024.”
He also said strategic Innovations include Paediatric Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) package launched in six states (Gombe, Kano, Lagos, Rivers, Anambra and Benue) with partner support, ” addressing mortality among children with late-stage HIV through diagnostics, prophylaxis, and mentorship.”
While saying there is continued partnership with donors and implementing agencies to improve access to PMTCT and paediatric ART, he added that there is also development of a robust Paediatric/Adolescent TB-HIV Framework.
Dr Nwaokenmeya Peter, head of treatment care and support of the organization
said the country has done a lot in closing the HIV gap among the country’s pediatric population.
He said the strategies and improvement recorded was as a result of collaborative efforts between the government and healthcare providers in the facilities and the Global Fund , for the support it has been giving through provision of test kits that improved testing among pregnant women.
He also said this has helped identify more cases among pediatric population.
Dr Peter said the more cases are being identified the more cases are placed on treatment.
He said, ” with all these strategies in place I think we are making the plans towards reaching the 95 – 95- 95 targets by 2030.”
Dr Chioma Ukanwa , head of prevention , NASCP said indices of PMTCT were very poor before around 2020 and 2021, and was a major concern to the country.
She said to change the narrative the country did a situation analysis and discovered that only about 74% of women in Nigeria come to health facilities leaving a huge chunk both in reporting and intervention.
” So we quickly started mapping, and that was the foundation of the scale up of PMTCT services in Nigeria. So we quickly mapped and that is how we moved from 6,000 to 35000 to 40, 000 service delivery points where women who are pregnant receive antenatal care and delivery.
