The Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke and Consul General of the United States Consulate in Lagos, Will Stevens, asked for the engagement of all stakeholders so that more individuals in the state may know their Human Immunodeficiency Virus status.
They both spoke in Osogbo at the launching of the Osun Art Surge Project, an initiative of Excellence Community Education and Welfare Scheme, aiming at delivering comprehensive and sustainable HIV/AIDS clinical and community services to achieve HIV epidemic control in sub-national units of Delta, Ekiti and Osun states.
The effort is financed by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Adeleke, who was represented at the occasion by his deputy, Kola Adewusi, where he was dubbed “State Surge Champion,” noted that in the first five months of active surge implementation, Osun had experienced a spike in treatment coverage of 12%.
He also added, “In closing, I want to restate our commitment to attaining an HIV-free community in Osun State. We have gone a long way, but we recognize there is still more work to be done. Together, we can and will continue to make progress towards our objective of eradicating HIV/AIDS in our state and Nigeria as a whole.
“Commending health professionals and other stakeholders for working hard to guarantee that no individual living with HIV in Osun was left behind, Adeleke accepted his nomination as the ‘State Surge Champion’ and vowed to select a state official to supervise the operations of the initiative.
Commenting on why Osun was the target of the project, ECEWS Project Director for HIV Treatment for Osun, Ekiti, and Delta States, Dr Okezie Onyedinachi, said as of 2022, 29,000 individuals were living with HIV in the state adding that 16,000 had been placed on treatment.
Okezie Onyedinachi said those not yet on treatment must be contacted before 2025, saying that the Surge initiative was aimed to discover persons living with HIV in the state, who had not begun treatment.
In his comments, US Consul General, Stevens urged for teamwork and coordinated efforts to reach the most vulnerable persons and make them get tested and treated.
