HIV/AIDS: Stakeholders tasked on 2020 deadline
Gloria Essien, Abuja
The wife of the Nigerian president Mrs Patience Jonathan has urged stakeholders to re-double efforts to meet the 2020 deadline of putting an end to the AIDS pandemic.
She said this during a meeting with governors’ wives and stakeholders in
the health sector in Abuja.
In her words: "prevention of mother-to-child transmission and discouraging
stigmatisation were part of key interventions that must be aggressively
pursued in reducing the number of people living with the virus.”
Speaking on the mandate given to first ladies at the just concluded “First Ladies For The Elimination New HIV infections in Children” meeting in New York, Mrs. Jonathan said achieving the mandate was possible.
At the just concluded UN Summit on AIDS in New York, which Mrs Jonathan attended, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, urged World leaders to do everything in their power to end the AIDS pandemic by the year 2020.
“It is important for us therefore to re-double our effort in order to meet the 2020 target,” she said.
The president's wife noted that she considered those that attended the meeting as partners in progress and advised them to join her as she steps up HIV/AIDS grassroots campaigns and programmes.
Stemming maternal mortality
Mrs Jonathan also said that maternal Health was another area that must attract critical attention as no woman should die giving life.
She appealed to governors' wives to always visit hospitals in their localities and to pay attention to the maternity and delivery wards and to take note of
hospital equipment.
She stressed that such visits could help identify the conditions of the hospitals and clinics in order for proper advice to be given to the heads on areas where they need reforms.
The President’s wife pledged to pay impromptu visits to health care centres in the Federal Capital Territory and offered to assist indigent women who cannot pay for ante-natal care and blood transfusions through her NGO, the “Women for Change and Development Initiative.”
She equally urged doctors and nurses to keep to best practices while performing their professional duties and be friendly and sympathetic to women in labour as they were going through major challenges.
Commendations
The president of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Dr Nma Nwokocha, thanked Mrs. Jonathan for her effort at eradicating maternal mortality and noted that her action matches her words. She said that Mrs Jonathan’s efforts had been noticed.
The President of the National Council for Women Societies, Mrs. Ramatu Usman,
while proffering solutions urged doctors to give medicare their all and
concentrate on the general hospitals instead of referring patients to their own private clinics.
President of the Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) Mr. Edward Ogenyi, thanked the president's wife for her support by donating a
bus to them for quick access to medicare and giving them monthly grants to help them feed well.
Heads of other associations such as the Medical Council of Nigeria, Nigerian
Association of Nurses and Midwives, Nursing Council of Nigeria, Market Women
Association among others were also present at the meeting.
Williams
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