NMA urge Govt to sign HIV/AIDS bill

Plateau state governor Simon Lalong and the state house of assembly have been urged to expedite action on the anti-discriminatory bill that has been pending at the state assembly since 2015.

The anti-discriminatory bill when passed and signed into law will give legal backing to all form of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in the state.

Plateau state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)  and Civil Society for HIV/AIDS made the call during the public lecture organized to mark the 2018 edition of World Aids day commemorated on Saturday.

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The professional bodies said the call has became necessary for the need to protect and accommodate victims of the scourge.

“This very important bill was passed by the 7th assembly of the state, but was not assented to before the expiration of last administration. The bill had to be returned to the house when the new government took over in 2015. Since then the bill has been abandoned.

“We want the present administration of Simon Lalong to revisit this bill and sign into law to buttress the fight against HIV/AIDS in this state.

NMA lamented that the fight for HIV/AIDS across the country has been so poor and Plateau state should lead by example by taking deliberate steps to lead other state to end this scourge.

Guest speaker at the event Prof Oche Agbaji said there are 3.1 million Nigerians currently living with HIV and less than half of them have access to drugs.

Prof Agbaji said, “That is why the theme for this year edition is “know your HIV status” because we need to discover those who are with the sickness and are not accessing drugs.

He said now that the donors are withdrawing their funding for HIV, Nigeria government needs to improve their funding intervention to cover the gap, because there are still much to be done in the fight against HIV.