Health expert, Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, said Nigeria has achieved appreciable improvement in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic control as the nation attains closing the gap status with almost two million persons living with HIV on treatment.
Osi-Samuels, who is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Programmes) of APIN Public Health Initiative, made this known at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital complex.
While presenting the South African National Accreditation System certificate to OAUTHC Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratory for its efficiency in testing, Osi-Samuels said: “The HIV project in Nigeria has been very impactful. As we speak now, we have close to two million people on treatment and the HIV prevalence in Nigeria is two million. It means we are getting to what they called closing the gap.”
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He said the OAUTHC lab was able to achieve the accreditation, having met the SANAS criteria and charged the hospital to sustain the standard.
OAUTHC Chief Medical Director, Prof. John Akintunde Okeniyi, who received the certificate, said the management would do more in providing tertiary healthcare services to Nigerians.
A professor of pediatrics in the hospital, Ebunoluwa Aderonke Adejuyigbe, said the accreditation placed OAUTHC PCR lab on global standard.
She said: “The OAUTHC PCR laboratory equally serves as a regional testing hub for other facilities in Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Oyo states, and, sometimes, as far as Benue State and NIMR in Lagos.
“The Centre for Disease Control, through APIN, has continued to support the facility with laboratory equipment and training of personnel. The facility currently has a COBAS analyser (C4800) for running HIV Viral load as well as Early Infant Diagnosis tests for all patients enrolled in the facility.”
