Nigeria: Despite government attempts to stop the fatal disease’s spread in the most populous African nation, Nigeria reports at least 15,000 AIDS-related deaths annually, according to a local official.
At an advocacy and sensitization event in Abeokuta, the capital of the southwestern state of Ogun, Temitope Ilori, head of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), informed reporters that over 22,000 new cases of HIV, which attacks the body’s immune system in the early stages of AIDS, have been reported so far this year, according to Xinhua news agency.
Ilori said, “Around 140,000 children between the ages of 0 and 14 are living with HIV,” alluding to the country’s rising prevalence rate.
The official bemoaned shortcomings in the country’s reaction to the infectious disease’s widespread prevalence and said that Nigeria still has a major problem in avoiding mother-to-child transmission of the illness.
She stated that according to official figures, Nigeria had 45,000 HIV/AIDS-related fatalities and 75,000 new HIV infections in 2023 alone.
