The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA), Dr. Oluseyi Temowo has urged all the Partners, CSOs, Line Ministries, the Private Sector and all Citizens to embrace the year 2018 World AIDS Day (WAD) theme – ’KNOW YOUR STATUS’ – by accessing Free HIV Testing Service (HTS) in government heath facilities across the State .

Dr. Temowo, who stated this at a press briefing to mark the World AIDS Day event, said that knowing one’s status was important as the global scene was working towards reducing the burden of the HIV scourge by 2020 in line with the UNAIDS General Assembly Declaration of 2016, otherwise referred to as the 90-90-90 initiative.

The CEO posited that about 360 million people are infected with the virus globally and about 10% of the figure are resident in Nigeria, making Nigeria the country with the second highest burden after South Africa.

He maintained that the human resources required to tackle the burden still had gaps in terms of training, requisite knowledge and the will to tackle the challenges confronting the HIV response, stressing that material and financial resources required to tackle the scourge are not readily available and inadequate.

According to Temowo, such challenges impact negatively on the control and attainment of the 90-90-90 targets.

He said the Lagos State Government had in the last one year embarked on what he referred to as ‘4 by 3’ strategy of reaching the three senatorial districts of the State, thereby increasing the uptake of HIV Testing Services (HTS) especially in hard-to-reach communities.

Accordingly, he added, HIV sensitisation and screening were conducted among 2,230 market women and men while those who tested positive were linked to healthcare institutions.

Dr. Temowo stated that HIV sensitisation cum training was also conducted among the Deaf and the Blind communities in the State while relevant Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials were produced in braille format for the blind.

He added that enlightenment campaigns were also conducted inside public transportation vehicles, including LAGBUS, to increase awareness on the prevalence and measures taken by government to confront the spread of HIV.