President Goodluck Jonathan has called for political commitment at all levels of government, from the ward level to the national government, in order to increase the momentum in the effort to achieve elimination of mother to child transmission (eMTCT) of HIV, saying that no child deserves to be born with HIV and no mother deserves to die of AIDS.
He made the pledge yesterday in Abuja during the Presidential Launch of the National Operational Plan for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Nigeria by 2020 (2015-2016).
Jonathan said that the process being undertaken by him, aimed at a political and social mobilisation to end the AIDS epidemic among children.
The president who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, noted that Nigeria is still faced with several gaps towards improving health outcomes in the country, including funding and access to health facilities.
“There are still challenges with bringing services closer to the communities through the primary health care system, as a result of infrastructural decay, inadequate and mismatch of human resources for health, inadequate funding for service delivery and lack of enabling policies for key interventions, which are partly linked to limited political leadership and ownership at the states and local government levels.”
According to him, the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey showed that six in 10 women receive ante natal care (ANC) from a skilled provider, which implies that 30 per cent of them did not receive ANC services from a skilled provider.
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