HIV/AIDS takes over Anambra state as over 700,000 suffering from ailment

There is Health tension in Anambra state as over seven hundred thousand (700,000) people out of the over five Million (5 Million) population in Anambra state is suffering from HIV/AIDS virus in the Anambra state, The Authority on Saturday investigations have revealed.

There is an emergency high prevalence of AIDS and HIV in the state now and there should be approachable efforts and proactive measures to check the spread before it reaches alarming ratio. There are (9) HIV/AIDS clusters in the state excluding those with the Primary Health Centers.

They are Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Hospital Ihiala, St Andrews Anglican Church D C C Nnewi , General Hospital Ekwulobia , St Joseph the Worker Hospital Adazi-Nnukwu, General Hospital Awka and General Hospital Enugu-Ukwu.

Others are St Charles Boromeo Hospital Onitsha , Rush Gran Hospital Onitsha, General Hospital Onitsha.


A breakdown of clusters of registered members excluding Primary Health centers and private organizations as well as federal institutions show Ihiala has a little above 4,050, Awka has over 670, Enugu Ukwu has over 270,Nnewi has over 6,000,  Onitsha has over 16,000 among others.

This represents 8.7 percent sexually active group in the population of 5 Million people in the state.

Insider source at Ekwulobia told Authority on Saturday that they have been neglected in the past four years, appealing to Governor Willie Obiano to dedicate 2 percent of the state and local government budgets for response to people living with HIV/AIDS in Anambra.

Our source accused those taking care of them at various points of extorting monies ranging from N250 for children and N600 for adults to register among other extortions.

The source is worried that the N1 Billion former Governor Peter Obi announced that the State Government will spend on procurement of HIV testing kits to be  distributed to all hospitals and health centres across the State during his campaign for Governor Willie Obiano was not well distributed after it was procured.


Anambra state Action Committee on AIDS (ANSACA) headed by the SA to the Governor on Youth Empowerment, Dr Onyeka Ibezim could not pick his calls or respond to his text messages and was not in the office when Authority on Saturday visited. 


Investigations revealed that widows who are widowed because of HIV/AIDS are driven from their homes and have no means of livelihood even as children orphaned by HIV/AIDS need to be supported. 

The Source lamented that about 100, 000 people living with the HIV/AIDS virus in the state have no access to the anti retroviral treatment which is a life saving treatment, regretting that HIV.AIDS prevalent in the state has moved from 5.6 percent to 9.7 percent if not more due to poor funding and commitment.

But efforts to get the authoritative voices of coordinators of the HIV/AIDS cells across the state proved abortive as a priest Rev Fr Simon Adigbo of Hope Alive Support Group Ihiala ; Gladys Ezembu of Hope Givers Awka, Ibekwe Alexander of Health Link Organization Ekwulobia ; Innocent Nwafor of Network of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nnewi among other speakers did not yield fruits as they have not responded to our reporter’s inquiry as at press time.

But they had in a previous chat with this reporter appealed for more attention to their members as many are graduates but could not get job because of societal stigmatization, while neglect has dealt hard blow to many carriers.

Immediate past  Director of Anambra state Action Committee of AIDS (ANSACA), Dr John Ndibe when contacted refused to speak to The Authority on Saturday as he claimed he is no longer in charge of the ANSACA and referred this reporter to Dr Ibezim.
But a Non-Governmental Organization, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa International Pastoral Care Resource Centre (AMIPCRC) recently visited the HIV/AIDS patients at St. Joseph Hospital, Adazi-Nnukwu in Aniocha Local Government Area of the state with assurances of hope.
While interacting with Anyi Ga Adi Association, a support group that operates under the hospital, Rev. Cannon Cyprian Nwankwo, a resource person for Archbishop Maxwell International Pastoral Care Resource Centre, told the patients that “our mission here today is to empower and give our little support to those living with HIV/AIDS. The virus as we all know carries a lot of burdens. These burdens and the stigmatizations are enough to kill the carrier, hence, part of the resolve of this foundation to periodically, as much as possible to identify with you. Our coming here today is also designed to enlighten you on how to lead a healthy lifestyle, and to protect your loved ones and the society from getting the virus. It is our mutual responsibility to protect the world and make it free of HIV/AIDS. And we discourage the carriers from spreading the disease, perhaps in vengeance.”
Earlier, Rev. Fr. Christian Ononiba, assistant manager of St. Joseph Hospital Adazi-Nnukwu were the support group is located commended the Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa Pastoral Foundation for their kind gesture. “I call what you people are doing today a vocational work. You are being called to see to the welfare of people who are less privileged and sick.”                                                                          
Responding on behalf of the HIV/AIDS patients, the coordinator of the Anyi Ga Adi Association, Mr Stephen Nwatu, thanked the foundation for remembering to visit them and providing them with some food items.
His words: “We are happy you people came to visit us here. Our aim of organizing these support groups is to build a capacity of our members in such a way that they would be able to, not only sustain themselves but to be able to impact positively in the lives of other people out there in our society. Today people are living happily than before when our members die often, due to lack of empowerments. We thank you for the food items. People here need more drugs and nutritional foods because most of the drugs they take are more of antibiotics and needed more of proteinuria foods. Thank you for the ones brought for us today. We also thank God for the life of Archbishop Maxwell Anikwe‎nwa for his vision for humanity and his vision for empowering the less privileged people in the society.”


The Authority on Saturday gathered that former Governor Peter Obi’s wife Margaret Peter-Obi was the last to visit the HIV/AIDS patients and gave each of the clusters N130,000 cash donation and 8 bags of rice,8 bags of beans, cartons of Milo, cartons of custard  and Crayfish to mention but a few.

Former Director Child Development in the Ministry of Women Affairs , Mr Emeka Ejide while speaking to the Authority on Saturday lamented that many of the HIV/AIDS victims went through hellish situation as ANSACA went into comatose years before Obi’s administration revived it even as he appealed to Governor Obiano to pay more attention in that direction to ensure they outlive stigmatization. 

Meanwhile, investigations revealed that the Anambra state Action Committee on AIDS (ANSACA) identified over 1,000 prostitution spots in the state during a survey which is transmission points.

Then ANSACA state Coordinator, Dr John Ndibe said he identified six hundred and eighteen prostitution spots where prostitution thrive in Anambra.

He had said: ,’’ these places are not brothels in the true sense of the word but joints where prostitution thrive.  Some are streets and bars as well as identified brothels.

‘’And you know prostitution assists HIV/AIDS to spread. So we identified 618 spots where people aggregate for the purposes of prostitution but I will like to appeal to the Governor not to demolish the brothels or joints where these people are found to enable us assess them with interventions.

Ndibe continued ,‘’I am sure it is better and I am advocating for that because if you demolish the brothels, the prostitutes and those who patronize them will go underground making it possible for interventions and the spread would be unimaginable.

‘’ These people must be in the business and it is better they are identified by the public and everybody would be on the alert than going underground and the spread becomes something else.

It would be recalled that during Obi’s tenure, the Director General of National Agency for the Control of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Prof. John Idoko had received three operational vehicles and a trailer load of AIDS kits for management of AIDS in Anambra state from the Governor, Mr Peter Obi for the Anambra State Aids Control Agency (ANSACA).

From Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, Awka
HIV/AIDS takes over Anambra state as over 700,000 suffering from ailment HIV/AIDS takes over Anambra state as over 700,000 suffering from ailment Reviewed by Unknown on Sunday, March 06, 2016 Rating: 5

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