African Network of Adolescent and Young People Development (ANAYD) has raised concerns over report that children are being left behind in the fight against HIV/AIDS due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

UNICEF, in a recent report, noted that every minute and 40 seconds a child or young person under the age of 20 was newly infected with HIV.

‘Even as the world struggles in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children continue to suffer the ravages of the HIV epidemic’, Executive Director at UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, said.

Development Diaries understands that over 1.9 million people are living with HIV in Africa’s most populous nation, with only 67 percent of them aware of their HIV status, according to data from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).

In September, Executive Secretary of Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CiSHAN), Walter Ugwocha, said in a report that about 900,000 people living with HIV in the country were not traceable.

‘Due to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, HIV/AIDS issues have been silenced, especially among adolescents and young people’, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the Executive Director of ANAYD, Aaron Sunday, as saying.

‘This situation calls for serious concern among infected adolescents and young people. There is the need to adhere to antiretroviral drugs (ARV) regimes but may no longer see HIV/AIDS as something to worry about. This is scary.

‘Patients must be encouraged to maintain uptake of their drugs to achieve viral load suppression ad live a normal life.

‘It is also good to enlighten people to the fact that HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence once one can adhere to the drugs’.

For his part, the Executive Director of Hero’s Health Community Support Initiative (HHCSI), Anibueze Chidiebere, urged the Nigerian government and other key stakeholders to come to the aid of adolescents and young persons.

‘Covid-19 has created a very negative impact on adolescents and young persons’, he said.

‘Government and relevant stakeholders must come to the aid of the adolescents and young persons because if nothing is done some of them with HIV infections could die from other opportunistic infections that could have been treated’.

He further advised people living with HIV/AIDS to always ensure proper hygiene and to always know their status to encourage healthy living.

Source: NAN

Photo source: Stars Foundation