Nigeria wants to know its current HIV/AIDS prevalence via nationwide survey
The Nigerian National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) with the support of the federal ministry of health is planning to conduct a nationwide survey which among other things aims to establish the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Dubbed Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), it will carried out under the directives of the health ministry and coordination of NACA.
The exercise will be held between June and December 2018 according to the Director-General of NACA, Dr. Sani Aliyu.
Pitched as the twelfth of its kind in the world, NACA DG said a total of 170,000 Nigerians will be involved in the survey which will also help to affirm the distribution of Hepatitis B and C in Nigeria.
Some of the questions that the survey will attempt to answer includes an assessment of the uptake of HIV services among the population, and and the prevalence HIV-related risk behaviours across the country.
According to the methodology of the survey, voluntary participants would be recruited from randomly selected households nationwide. They will be interviewed and blood tests would be conducted.
The Nigerian government believes that this exercise is going to be the largest HIV/AIDS survey ever conducted in part of the world.
In his remarks at a press briefing, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole who was represented by Senior Special Assistant, Community Health and Health Management, Araoye Segilola strongly believes that the survey would improve the health indices of the country, and enable government deploy resources to where they are most needed.