By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
KOGI State, in collaboration with Initiative for Grassroots Advancement in Nigeria (INGRA) and other partners, is soon to enact a law criminalizing stigmatization and discrimination against Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PL-HIV) in the state.
Dr Abdulaziz Adams Adeiza, Kogi Commissioner for Health disclose this in his office during an advocacy meeting on the proposed HIV and AIDS Anti-Stigma and Discrimination Bill in Lokoja.
The Commissioner said that all the necessary state organs for the legislation were ready and waiting for presentation of the bill to the state House of Assembly.
He said that the Assembly Standing Committee on Health had expressed their readiness to consider the bill saying, “They are passionate about the bill and they are in fact, waiting for us to bring it.
“So, we need to sit down and look at the Bill together and see if it is what the state can consider as an Executive Bill.
“The immediate past governor and the current governor are people who are passionate about health. These two persons are personalally biased towards issues of health”, he said.
Dr Adeiza thanked INGRA and the collaborating partners for their effort at addressing issues of response to HIV/AIDS and people living with the virus in the state.
Addressing the Commissioner on the need for the law, Hamza Aliyu Executive Director, INGRA frowned at the pronounced cases of stigmatization and discrimination against PL-HIV in public health and Medical facilities.
He held that the current modalities where HIV response occurs as a “Stand-alone Service” in healthcare facilities were discriminatory adding that Government must therefore take immediate actions to integrate it into the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the facilities.
Aliyu disclosed that the state HIV response had made some progressive impact on achieving the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN-AIDS) 95-95-95 targets.
He said that while progress has been made in the first 95 (knowing their status), challenges remain in getting people on and remaining on anti-retrovirals and eventually, achieving viral suppression.
The INGRA Executive Director said that either by omission or commission, the public sector coordinating entities were also perpetrating, not just individual stigma but community stigma which is affecting young people.
“We’re having public sector, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) structured stigma including the segregation of HIV units and the collection of biometric data that are preventing our people from staying on the second and third 95.
“All this put together, Honorable Commissioner, is breeding a culture of impunity in terms of not allowing our people to own up to their status because of the stigma that is attached to HIV.
And so, one of the things we think we can do for ourselves is to provide a legal framework to promote and protect the rights of those who are positive.
Also speaking earlier, Dr Ikemefuna Onyeadi of the Aids Health Foundation (AHF) called for domestication of the Federal Anti-Stigma and discrimination Law saying there was need to cascade the law down to Kogi “to give our people their rights and privileges.”
Pharm. Bernard Akpa, Associate Director, Center for Integrated Health Programme (CIHP), said PL-HIV in the state were not getting the best from the health facilities as a result of stigma and discrimination as he urged the the legislation be accorded priority attention. (Ends)