Leadership, 13 September 2014

HIV/AIDS is "now fast on the decline in Zamfara state", the Commissioner of Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Birnin-Magaji has disclosed.

The commissioner made the declaration in Gusau on Friday while speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said this was as a result of awareness campaigns embarked upon by the state government.

"We carried out these campaigns at any given opportunity including public functions, schools, motor parks, radio and television drama and jingles."

He said the effort had impacted significantly on the public in the state as the prevalence rate had dropped from 2.1 in 2012 to 0.4 in 2013.

He said eventhough national and international support in the fight against the disease had reduced, "we are very confident that the scourge would be a thing of the past, more especially that the Sharial legal system being operated in the state is also playing a significant role in moulding people's behaviours."

The commissioner however appealed to donor organisations both within and outside the nation to continue assisting the state government in its effort against spread of the disease noting that it was not only through sexual intercourse that one gets infected.

Also speaking, a lecturer at the state's School of Health Technology, Tsafe, Mallam Nura Zurmi said "we have observed that even the use of condoms have dropped as the sells of condoms had reduced in chemists."

Mallam Nura said, students at both senior secondary and tertiary institutions now organised dramas and other methods of advising themselves to guard agaisnt the disease.

When NAN conducted a survey at some chemists in the state capital, Gusau, many of the chemists said cases of sexually transmitted diseases had reduced "as you know many people prefer coming to chemists with veneral diseases than going to hospitals." (NAN)

Source: Leadership