By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has donated 25,000 test kits to Bauchi State Government in the fight against the prevalence of HIV, particularly among children under the age of 5.
The test kits were donated by the UNICEF, through the Bauchi Field Office, as support to ensure that every child was tested in order to ascertain his or her status and commence treatments immediately.
While receiving the kits at the UNICEF Central Store on Monday, the Eexecutive chairman of the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of HIVAIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (BACATMA), Dr Adamu Sambo, said that, “These are basically HIV test kits. They gave us a total of 25,000 test kits for testing children below the age of 5 years. Because you know, children below the age of 5 are also at risk of HIV.”
According to him, “And they will have a longer period of time to stay. So if we want to control the disease, we have to target these children to be sure that we test them early and place them on treatment to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.”
On what it means to the office and the fight against HIV/AIDS in The state, the BACATMA EC stressed that,”It means a lot. We have been having challenges of test kits. Most of the targeted testing that we do as per different populations, especially the children, we have been having challenges with the test kits, even though the state government has been complementing.”
He added that,”But it has not been adequate enough to address the test kit needs for the people of Bauchi state. This will go a long way to cover the gap that already existed in the diagnosis and initial treatment of children below the age of 5 years.”
On the way forward, he said that,”From here on now, we will look at the situation, we will identify those high priority areas where these children are found, especially we are going to ensure that each child delivered in a facility is tested for HIV. And if at eventual that child is found to be positive for the disease, we’ll be able to now place the child on treatment, childhood treatment for the disease is key in the fight.”
“Also, we will check that all the children and the mothers are positive at least during our PMCT service. So we look at all the centers where we have this and then we’ll also look at our partnering agencies that also control the clinical cases of HIV AIDS, vis-a-vis our secondary health facilities, the primary health centers, and even our partner center in Ganjuwa, the MSF center that also see a lot of malnourished children, some of them have HIV as well,” he added.
Adamu Sambo added that,”So we’re able to detect the cases and then make sure we put them on treatment.
He added,”We really thank UNICEF for supporting Bauchi state government in this aspect. On behalf of the people and government of Bauchi state. We really appreciate this kind gesture of supporting these children before the age of 5 years. The life of our children will be more qualitative. We really appreciate UNICEF for this.”
He assured that,”The outcomes will definitely improve in Bauchi state and I believe with this support we have gotten from UNICEF, Bauchi state will be on the right track to eradicate the disease, Inshallah.”
Also speaking at the event, the Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, said that the test kits were provided to improve the health and wellbeing of children, particularly those under five years of age.
According to her,”Early identification of HIV in children would enable timely treatment and help prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease. This is a critical intervention aimed at identifying HIV infection early and saving the lives of children by preventing mother-to-child transmission.”
She stressed the “Once children are tested, mothers will be properly counselled on appropriate nutrition and breastfeeding practices to ensure quality care for their children,”
Nuzhat Rafique then urged the agency to immediately commence the use of the kits in order to achieve the set objectives especially at facilities where births are being taken.
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