Ayodele Olalere
Sixty thousand HIV patients of the 120,000 HIV positives individuals in Lagos State are currently ‘missing’ without having received treatment.
It is believed that majority of them are located in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state.
At the Wednesday’s inauguration of the State HIV Consortium, Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi said Eti-Osa local government accounts for 3.3 per cent of the people living with HIV in the state, which is the highest.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, however, promised that the state would make every efforts to locate the missing patients for them to receive treatment and prevent the spread of the virus.
“The prevalent rate is still a case for concern so we need aggressive campaign. We will ensure we solve and found the 60,000 HIV patients,” he said.
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To solve the problem, the governor added his government would formulate strategy and reach out to the patients.
He also said the Consortium was inaugurated to assist the state government in achieving its objectives of ridding the state of HIV.
“The purpose of the group is to provide platform for people and for us to achieve our objective.
“I wish to appeal to Lagosians to cooperate with us so we can achieve reduction of HIV patients in the state.
“Our strategy is to scale up our community structure, reach out to to youths so as to prevent and cure.
According to Prof. Abayomi, “40 million people have died of HIV throughout the world.
“We are going to find the 60,000 people and put them on treatment so Lagos can be the first to reduce HIV in the state.”
