Community health workers lament high HIV prevalence in Kaduna

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

Community health practitioners have lamented the high rate of HIV prevalence in Kaduna, saying, the state is leading the 35 states in HIV related infection.
The state chairman of the group, Ibrahim Suleiman disclosed this while fielding questions from reporters in Kaduna yesterday.
According to him, as community health workers who are close to the grassroots and most times attached to Primary Health Care facilities, they are worried about the increased number of people being infected with the virus. He however said, progress is being made as people are now coming out to know their status.
He explained that, the state finds itself in this position because people did not care to know their status and those who are HIV positive keep infecting others knowingly or unknowingly.
“But when people know their status they are placed on antiretroviral drugs which boost their immunity and reduced the risk of infecting others”, he said.
Speaking on the training workshop, Comrade Suleiman said there is need for training and retraining of community health workers because their job witness new development and takes new dimension without notice.
Citing the example of Monkey Pox, he said it is important to quickly educate the community health workers on what it is all about so that they can pass the message to the grassroots and how to protect themselves as health workers from it.
“During the Ebola pandemic, the community health workers contributed immensely by educating the people on what to do and not to do. Now the Monkey Pox is here, and we are told to inform the grassroots to stop eating bush meat in order to be safe from this new disease.”