Many People Are Still Ignorant Of HIV/AIDS-NACA DG

The Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA),  Prof John Idoko, has lamented that   majority of Nigerians are still ignorant about the dreaded epidemic, HIV/AIDS even  with the country   having a national prevalence rate of 4.1 percent which places   it as the second largest country with people living with HIV in the world.

He disclosed this last Thursday while inaugurating the agency’s Media Committee  which include health correspondents from the print and broadcast media.

 Calling on journalists not to relent in educating and informing the public about the disease, the NACA DG also decried the negative consequences of the high level of  ignorance on HIV/AIDS , including deaths arising from the disease and  increase in cases of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

He, however, commended the media for playing a critical role in promoting messages targeted at behavioural change among Nigerians in different strata of society.

 Idoko urged   journalists to update their knowledge on HIV/AIDS in order to report on latest developments on the disease accurately.

He said: “Behavioral change is the kernel of HIV/AIDS control and management. Behavioral change is about people protecting themselves against the disease and should they test positive to HIV, behavioral change is about their seeking treatment.”

“The media has done a lot to place HIV/AIDS on the front burner especially with regard to  promoting and projecting messages on behavioral  through their articles. But the media must be encouraged to continue to with making HIV/AIDS an important issue due to how critical the control of the disease is to the health outcomes in Nigeria”.   


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