The Ondo State Ministry of Health has said the state government is working and doing its best to ensure that HIV programmes are strengthened in the state.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Pharmacist Foluke Aladenola, stated this during the State HIV Programme Stakeholders’ Review meeting in Akure.
Mrs Aladenola stated that the Ondo state government had been able to provide HIV kits and consumables in health facilities across the state.
She appreciated the collective efforts of all stakeholders to have helped in curbing the prevalence of HIV to a minimal level and disclosed that the review meeting was to provide an avenue for the stakeholders to have an overall overview of their performances over some time.
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The Permanent Secretary appreciated Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for providing an enabling environment for the health sector to thrive.
Also speaking, the Head of Office, the APIN Public Health Initiatives in Ondo Region, Dr Abimbola Ariyo, stated that the organisation had identified many people, who were HIV positive in the state in the last five years, noting that the identified people had been put on active HIV treatment.
Dr Ariyo said the infested people cut across children, adolescents, young adults, adults, and pregnant and breast-feeding women, stating that health partners have been able to provide a lot of training for different categories of health workers to improve their skills in a bid to provide quality HIV service delivery.
Ariyo disclosed that no fewer than 30 comprehensive healthcare facilities were supported across 17 out of 18 local government areas of the state.
He further stated that the stakeholders’ meeting was to focus on how APIN Initiatives had fared since 2018 to date and what it needed to do more for wider coverage.
He lauded the state government and the state Ministry of Health for allowing the organisation to work with them in tackling HIV in the state.
The Basic Health Centre, Ifon, received an APIN award for the best-performing health facility on HIV Case Finding while General Hospital, Ore, received an APIN award for the best performing health facility on Retention, Tracking and Retaining of HIV Patients.
Others are General Hospital, Ode Irele which received an APIN award of Best Performing Health Facility on Viral Load Coverage of HIV 2018 to 2022, while Comprehensive Health Centre, Oba Ile, got an APIN award for the best-performing health facility on Viral Load Suppression on HIV Programme 2018 to 2022.
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