The Global Director of Center for Disease Control (CDC) Dr. Tom Freiden and his entourage were in NACA to pay a courtesy call on the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Professor John Idoko at the Agency’s conference hall. 

Professor Idoko welcomed Dr. Freiden and his team including CDC Country Director Dr. Nancy Knight and said NACA has been partnering with CDC for a long time and intends to continue the good relationship existing between the two organizations. He went ahead to present an overview of NACA’s activities and  mandates among which are leadership and advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, coordination of the activities of the various sectors in the national response, development of strategic framework, as well as  formulation of policies and guidelines on HIV/ AIDS in Nigeria.

The NACA DG also talked about the priorities of NACA which is to strengthen prevention, bridging the PMTCT gap in the country, decentralization of services and integrated comprehensive HIV services at PHC and community levels. He equally talked about the issue of funding and sustainability which he said was the major focus of the just concluded 5th National Conference on HV/AIDS held here in Nigeria.

The Global Director of CDC Dr Freiden complimented the NACA DG for his efforts and said that CDC will continue to support the fight against HIV/AIDS.  The high point of his speech was centered on the need for increase in counseling and testing especially for women and children which he said will help in controlling mother to child transmission. He also talked about forming a funding stream for primary health care. Dr. Freiden, the Global Director of CDC also suggested the decentralization of HIV/AIDS and integration of all other essential services bearing in mind the fact that Nigeria is a very large country.

Dr. Nancy Knight, Country Director CDC Nigeria said it is necessary to ensure that the additional resources from the U.S and Global Fund should be fully maximized to bring out desired result. Another member of the team from CDC said Nigeria needs to ensure that safe blood products and transfusion are ensured at all levels and that in terms of treatment, it is important to put in more resources, since more people need to be put on drugs and more expensive drugs may be needed.

NACA’s Administration Director, Mr. Patrick Abah gave the vote of thanks. He expressed his profound appreciation on behalf of NACA to the Global Director of CDC and his entourage. He said NACA will continue to strive very hard to ensure success  in the fight against HIV/AIDS.