President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has raised the alarm over the withdrawal of international funding for HIV/AIDS.
Saraki, a medical doctor, raised the alarm on Friday, April 7, 2017 while commemorating the World Health Day which is marked on April 7 every year as set aside by the United Nations.
In March, 2017 it was gathered that patients now pay between N5,000 and N50,000 for consultancy and drugs in HIV/AIDS centres where treatment used to be free.
With the various challenges facing Nigerian's health infrastructure, now is not the time to retreat on HIV/AIDS. #WorldHealthDay
— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) April 7, 2017
The loss of international funding for HIV/AIDS will create immediate stress on an already overburdened system. #WorldHealthDay
— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) April 7, 2017
As a medical doctor, I know that we can overcome all threats to our nation’s healthcare system. But we must act now. #WorldHealthDay
— Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) April 7, 2017
In 2016, when the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) visited the President of the Senate Dr. Bukola Saraki, it had warned that international donor agencies were withdrawing funding for HIV and AIDS in Nigeria.
According to Saraki, the HIV/AIDS pandemic was still plaguing the nation hence there was need for as much funding as the nation could get.
The President of the Senate took to his twitter handle @BukolaSaraki to stress that with the many problems currently confronting Nigeria in the area of health, now was not a good time to retreat on health.
He stressed that if the decrease in funding is not immediately checked, it would soon have a negative impact of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS which was already reducing in terms of statistics.
Saraki expressed grave worry that the treatment of 3.4 million Nigerians would suffer greatly with the recent withdrawal of funds.
He therefore called on FG to source alternative funding to cater for the population of Nigerians living with the virus so as to curtail its spread.
