Group takes HIV/AIDS campaigns to Taraba communities

Speaking at one of the campaigns in Bali LGA of Taraba, ASWHAN’s Programme Officer, Faruna Benedette, said the outreach was aimed at sensitizing women and men of reproductive age to know their HIV/AIDS status so as to prevent its transmission to their unborn babies.She said the programme was being carried out across 12 communities in […]

Speaking at one of the campaigns in Bali LGA of Taraba, ASWHAN’s Programme Officer, Faruna Benedette, said the outreach was aimed at sensitizing women and men of reproductive age to know their HIV/AIDS status so as to prevent its transmission to their unborn babies.
She said the programme was being carried out across 12 communities in six local government areas of the state, namely Jalingo, Zing, Lau, Ardo-Kola, Bali and Wukari.
Faruna said the programme which was being implemented in collaboration with the NACA/SURE-P Project, is aimed at addressing the challenges of high HIV/AIDS burden in the state.
 Taraba ranks the second state in the federation with highest  HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 10.5% according to the 2012 National HIV/AIDS Sentinel Survey Report.
She urged people, especially pregnant women to always avail themselves of free  Ante Natal Care (ANC) and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission services being offered in their localities to ensure a HIV/AIDS free generation.

Some of the community leaders and locals who spoke during the outreach, pointed out that people were afraid of going for voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing due to stigmatization from some health personnel at the facilities as well as  members of the public.