On Sunday, Nigeria received news of a collaboration between the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and the Nigerian private sector, to build an antiretroviral (ARV) drug manufacturing plant in the north east of Nigeria. The report also announced a 4-day visit of Mr Michel Sidibe, the Secretary General and Executive Director of UNAIDS, to Nigeria to discuss the 2016-2021 UNAIDS strategy and implementation with the government.
Having arrived Nigeria on Sunday February 7th, Mr Michel Sidibe paid a courtesy visit to the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Professor John Idoko, at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja. During this visit, Mr Sidibe revealed the alarming statistics of the prevalence of HIV/Aids in the country.
According to him, 58,000 babies are born with the AIDS virus in Nigeria every year, with only half having a chance of survival. In the same vein, about 3 million Nigerians are currently living with the HIV virus and only 91,400 out of a population of 177 million have undergone tests in 32 local governments in the country.
With these statistics and the fact that Africa imports over 90 percent of its ARV drugs, he called for a domestic funding of antiretroviral treatments, highlighting the need for Nigeria to own a budget specifically for the treatment of HIV/Aids despite external funding which he deemed unsustainable. “We can’t keep treating people with medicine from abroad. Africa should be able to produce and Nigeria should be the best hub for the production of drugs…”
Globally, about 25 million (70 percent) of 37 million people living with the virus are from sub-Saharan Africa. As the region continues to be the epicentre of the epidemic, Nigeria and other African countries need to scale up the production and supply of ARV drugs, which is why the establishment of a plant is a welcome development. It will also serve as an economic boost to the region.
In response to the statement made by Mr Sidibe, Professor Idoko rebutted the quoted statistics that 3 million Nigerians are living with the HIV virus and called for a review of existing data. He also said that that Nigeria has the resources to establish and run an ARV plant, “We have the resources, knowledge, manpower, etc.”
The establishment of an ARV plant is certainly a laudable project and thankfully this would be done in conjunction with the private sector, hence typical issues pertaining to maintenance will not arise often. With this, “UNAIDS would help facilitate the establishment of clear priorities for improving the security of HIV and related medicines and diagnostics supplies in Africa.”
