By Lucy Osuizigbo-Okechukwu
The Global Fund (GF-Nigeria), has donated 16 laptops to the Anambra State Ministry of Health for biometric data capturing of People Living with HIV/AIDS in the state.
Dr Charles Odima, Deputy Project Director, Global Fund Project, presented the laptops to the State Ministry of Health on Friday, in Awka. The director said the donation was carried out through the Family Health International and the Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative. Odima said GF supported HIV programmes, strengthened efforts in health facilities and carried out intensified community case finding of people who were HIV positive across the state.According to him, one way to reduce new infection is to identify those who are HIV positive and put them on treatment.“These laptops will be used for biometric data capturing of people living with the disease to know their status, so that they can have opportunity to be enrolled in a treatment programme and stay on treatment.“
If they continue to receive their treatment, the viral load in their system will reduce to a point that is considered undetectable.“When the viral load is undetectable, that person can no longer transmit HIV to another person. Once this is achieved, then we have reduced the risk of new infections in the state,” he said.Odima said that the ultimate goal was to get 95 per cent of people who were HIV positive to attain the undetectable status.“It means we are driving close to controlling the epidemic,” he said.Dr Afam Obidike, the state’s Commissioner for Health, who received the laptops, said that HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the state was at 2.4 per cent.Obidike promised that the state would make adequate and effective use of the laptops to ensure a smooth transition from paper-base documentation to electronic record system.“The electronic capturing will equally enhance unique identifiers and help to identify duplicate records, patient monitoring and patient information retrieval.“We appreciate Global Fund for partnering with the state government in the health sector, especially as it concerns HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and prevention,” he said. (NAN)
