Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 3/1/2005

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1 - NIGERIA: Authorities predict 250,000 people on ARVs by mid-2006

1 - NIGERIA: Authorities predict 250,000 people on ARVs by mid-2006

DAKAR, 1 March (PLUSNEWS) - The Nigerian government has said it aims to

quadruple the number of people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) by mid-2006,

enabling up to 250,000 HIV-positive people receive the medication.

" With grants from the Global Fund, the US President's Initiative PEPFAR,

the World Bank and the federal government, our projection is that we'll be

able to treat 250,000 people by June 2006, " Babatunde Osotimehin, the head

of Nigeria's National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), told PlusNews.

The target was first announced last week at a press conference at the end

of a visit to Nigeria by Feachem, the director of the Global Fund

to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Nigeria had previously set a goal of providing subsidised ARV treatment to

100,000 people by the end of 2005. About 65,000 already benefit from the

scheme.

Nigeria has received funding for its ambitious AIDS programme from

numerous international bodies. In July 2003, the Global Fund awarded a

grant of US $70 million to the government in Abuja to be paid over five

years, while the United States loaned Nigeria $150 million at preferential

rates and the World Bank provided a further $110 million of soft loans

Nigeria has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world

after South Africa and India.

The authorities estimate that almost four million of the country's 126

million people are living with the virus.

In 1991, Africa's most populous country had an HIV prevalence rate of

around two percent, but this shot up to five percent by 2003.

Last week the Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo got approval from the

cabinet to extend subsidised ARV treatment to 100,000 HIV-positive

Nigerians by the end of 2005. Three years ago, the government launched the

cheap treatment initiative, offering ARV drugs to 15,000 people at a

discounted price.

" In addition to those 15,000 people on ARV treatment, there are now

another 50,000 thanks to funds allocated by PEPFAR, " Lambo was quoted as

saying in the Nigerian daily, The Guardian, on Monday. " We think we will

be able to treat 100,000 people by December. "

However, despite these aggressive expansion plans, government officials

said the country was unlikely to meet its World Health Organisation (WHO)

target of putting 400,000 people on ARV treatment by the end of the year.

" This initiative seems very ambitious, " NACA's Osotimehin told PlusNews.

Health Minister Lambo was equally cautious, telling The Guardian: " I'm not

sure that we'll make it. "

This 400,000 target is part of WHO's " Three by Five " initiative which aims

to put three million people in the developing world on anti-AIDS treatment

by the end of 2005.

According to Pierre Mpele, the UNAIDS coordinator in Nigeria, the

country's programmes to fight AIDS and malaria are way behind schedule.

" The latest loans were only signed in 2004. There's been a big delay in

getting the programmes going, which is the collective responsibility of

the donors and the recipients, " Mpele told PlusNews.

" We're in the acceleration phase, " he added. " After a period of

uncertainty, the authorities have taken several decisions that makes us

think the acceleration is in progress. "

" Nigeria is a miniature Africa. There are 36 states, some of whom have

prevalence rates touching 10 percent. And the country is ethnically and

religiously complex, " Mpele went on. " It's an immense task. "

[ENDS]

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