HIV/AIDS: Govt tasked on integrating young people in policies

Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine (EVA), Fadekemi Agarau,  has called on government to expand its policies to factor in the needs of young people. He made the call during a meeting of the organisation with the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko, in Abuja. He […]

Executive Director, Education as a Vaccine (EVA), Fadekemi Agarau,  has called on government to expand its policies to factor in the needs of young people.
He made the call during a meeting of the organisation with the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko, in Abuja.
He said research findings have  revealed that young people have asked a lot of questions concerning sexual and reproductive health, and  HIV/AIDS prevention and protection through its MyQuestion platform.
“We found out that young people had questions about where they can go and get services-like HIV testing, where can I go and get contraceptive, how can I prevent pregnancy.  Those that were sexually abused wanted to know where they can get support or succour. Young people also have a lot of misconception and myths that are not clear and they are looking for accurate/factual avenue to get these questions answered,” Agarau said.
He said: “We want government to now revise their policies on the basis of these kind of research. NACA is doing some work, Ministry of Health is doing some work, Ministry of Education is implementing sexuality education in schools, we want them to expand it. We are talking about 74 million young people in Nigeria. The essence of this research is to know where those gaps exist and how they can fill the gaps to reach more people especially in the rural areas,” Agarau said.
Earlier, Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko said NACA is working in collaboration with other NGOs to ensure young people and the society  in general get adequate information and advice on the HIV/AIDS virus.
He said the youth are the worst hit in terms of contacting the HIV/AIDS virus.
 “If you look at the various groups of people, the adolescents are the ones most left behind in the sense that they are not accessing services.
“Whether it is productive health, TB, malaria or HIV/AIDS. They are contracting these diseases and if they are not accessing these services, then of course they must be dying and having a lot of diseases. And these are the people in the prime of life; these are the people who in the next few years  will bear the burden of the economy on their head,” he said.