Imo State Government on Wednesday said about 10,000 yet-to-be people were living with HIV in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Vin Udokwu, who spoke at the inauguration of the state HIV surge consortium in Owerri, the state capital, said the government was working hard to identify the 10,000 people living with HIV in the state.
Referring to the report of the 2018 Nigeria HIV/AIDS indicator and impact survey, the commissioner said the state would soon achieve the elusive epidemic control.
He said, “According to the survey, Imo State HIV prevalence has dropped. This means that out of every 100 Imo State residents, aged 15- 64 years, we have less than two people infected with HIV virus.
“This also implies that Imo State with a projected population of approximately 5.6 million has about 10,000 people living with HIV that are unidentified. So, our collective responsibility as a state is to among other things identify these people, provide comprehensive care to them, halt the transmission of new infections and be among the first to reach the epidemic control target of September 2020.”
PUNCH