The Centre for Integrated Health Programmes (CIHP) has said it has tested not less than three million people in Gombe State in the last 17 years for Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) in collaboration with the state government.
Chief Executive Officer of the centre, Dr Bola Oyeledun, said this in an interview with journalists after she led her team on farewell visits to the state ministry of health and to the state deputy governor after its 17-year project on HIV.
According to her, the tested persons included pregnant women and newborn children, adding that out of the screened persons, one million were pregnant women. She noted that those found to be positive were about 26,000 and were placed on medication to keep them hale and hearty.
“The combined figure of people tested, including pregnant women, is over three million in a state with 3.9 million as the total population. We tested people, especially productive age, children who are newborns to ensure they are not carrying the infections.”, she said.
Bola explained that the infection’s transmission level has been broken as the affected persons cannot spread it now in the state ‘because 97 per cent of them are virally suppressed’.
The NGO revealed that its next focus after rounding up its previous programme in the state would now be on immunisation, maternal health and cervical cancer screening, disclosing that they have so far screened over 13,000 women, and 435 were found with precancerous and cancerous symptoms and have been treated.
