HEALTH NEWS: NPHCDA begins training of health workers on HIV control!!!

  THE Federal Government has expressed concern on the level of spread of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in rural communities across the country, as it embark on the training of primary health care workers to control the deadly disease in various states.

  The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado Muhammed, said on Tuesday, that health workers currently undergoing training were expected to go into various rural communities to control the spread of the dreaded HIV /AIDS virus, as the Agency inaugurated the
implementation of the integrated Training package for Primary Health Care Workers in six states, including Kaduna.

  Speaking at the occasion, Ado who was represented by the Director of Community Health Services, Dr. Emmanuel Odu stated the initiative of Government under the training programme was in "strengthening the capacities of our health workers and frontline institutional level towards
effective and integrated delivery of HIV/AID and other Primary Health care services and making these available to the Poor", pointing out that "this intervention is being implemented by the National Primary Health care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and Solina Health, as a key component of the Cooperative program between NPHCDA and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States President Emergency Preparedness Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR) II Initiative".

  He recalled that "HIV sero-sentinel survey of 2010 puts
the National prevalence of HIV in Nigeria at 4.1percent (though a decline from 4.4 percent of 2008; through the efforts of FGN and States), saying that "nevertheless, in a country of over 160 Million inhabitants, Nigeria is one of
the African Countries with a high burden of HIV/AIDS".

  A very significant proportion of this burden is borne by women and children who reside in rural and semi -urban communities that have access only to Primary Health Care. Sadly, most of HIV/AIDS interventions in the country before this time were domiciled at Tertiary and Secondary Health facilities". " This trend meant that most of the population affected by HIV/AIDS did not have direct access to quality HIV/AIDS interventions and had to incur extra direct and indirect costs of commuting to the cities in order to receive treatments and other interventions for HIV/AIDS. The implication of this is that majority of poor persons who needed such services never had access".

  However, Ado argued that "in line with the strategy of the Government of Nigeria to integrate basic HIV/AIDS services with other priority health interventions at the Primary Health Care (PHC) level, the NPHCDA is implementing the project titled: Program for HIV/AIDS Integration and Decentralization in Nigeria (PHAID)".
 
  "PHAID is a Public-Private Partnership aimed at strengthening the capacity of Nigeria's Primary Health are (PHC) system to deliver HIV/AIDS and other critical interventions at the PHC level."
NPHCDA is leading PHAID implementation with funding
from the United States Government through CDC and support from Solina Health Ltd, a health systems consulting firm and The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), a leading implementer of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Nigeria".
"PHAID aims to strengthen the capacity of Nigeria's health
system to deliver HIV/AIDS and other critical interventions by decentralizing basic HIV/AIDS to the PHC level and effectively integrating them into routine services provided at PHC health facilities".
Ado noted further: "currently NPHCDA will focus on 6 out of the 18 states for scale up of services and community system strengthening through the Ward Development Committees (WDCs) to improve demand and uptake of services. The six states for this 1st phase are; Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Bayelsa, Abia and Lagos".

  He also remarked that "following the successful assessment in April 2012 of Primary Care facilities in the 6 PHAID focal states and their categorization according to their state of readiness for HIV/AIDS service delivery, NPHCDA and PHAID partners will conduct a 2nd round of the Integrated Training Package for PHC health workers as well as their respective Local government PHC managers".

  The Key Program areas to be covered in this training, he explained include, Integrated service Delivery, Integrated Supportive Supervision, Supply Chain Management , Data Use and Strategic Information and Laboratory Services.

  "We believe that at the end of these training sessions, PHC workers and LGA PHC managers will be better positioned and sufficiently skilled to provide quality HIV/AIDS services as well offer improved routine services to the clients at the communities, via 2,000 MSS and SURE-P project Health facilities, in the short and medium terms".

  "We are confident that with the support of all key stakeholders in this fight against HIV/AIDS and common health problems, we will effectively control HIV/AIDS and the burden of basic/priority health conditions for the benefit of all".
Meanwhile, among Health Care experts present at the occassion yesterday, included the director of Primary Health Care, Kaduna state, Dr. Ado Zakari who represented the Commissioner of Health; the Executive
Secretary, Kaduna State Agency For the Control of AIDS, Mr. Patrick Katuka among others.

  Wowww!!! This is great news for PLWHA in the rural areas.. Surprisingly, some urban areas are also deficient of these medical aids.
However, its a very good innovation.

  What do you think? Please leave your comments below..



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