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HomeNews24,890 Lagosians test positive to HIV in 18 months

24,890 Lagosians test positive to HIV in 18 months

No fewer than 24,890 Lagosians have tested positive to the dreaded HIV disease within 18 months in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, says the Lagos State Government.

While 15,311 Lagosians tested positive to HIV in 2015, another 9,579 others tested positive to the disease between January and June 2016.

Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State Aids Control Agency, LSACA, Dr. Oluseyi Temowo disclosed the figures on wednenesday in Lagos.

At the event mean to mark this year’s World AIDS Day, Temowo disclosed that 616, 318 people were counselled, tested and received results between January and June 2016, out of which 9,579 individuals were found to be positive.

“In the year 2015, a total number of 599, 560 people were counselled, tested and received results out of which 15, 311 were found to be positive. In 2016 (1st Semester January to June), 616, 318 people were counselled, tested and received results out of which 9,579 individual were found to be positive. However, 52,803 positive individuals are currently on Antiretrovirals (ARVs),” he said.

he said that an HIV positive person could be symptoms free for 10 years and would continue to infect others if not checked and treated; adding that being an HIV positive person did not translate to death with appropriate medication.

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Speaking on the importance of World AIDS day, LSACA boss said the event was celebrated globally to remember those that had died of the scourge, those living with it and to take stock of various interventions and chart ways of ending it.

He said; “This year’s, global theme of: ‘Hands up for HIV Prevention’ is apt based on the UNAIDS prevention gap report that an estimated 1.9 million adults have become infected with HIV every year worldwide, for at least the past five years and that the number of new HIV infections is rising in some region.”

Temowo informed that HIV prevention efforts must be reinvigorated if the world world is to stay on the fast-track to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as agreed globally at UNAIDS meeting in New York in June this year.

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