BAUCHI – The Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPLWHAN) has urged the Bauchi state House of Assembly to pass anti-discrimination and stigmatisation bill into law.
The state Chairman of the association, Malam Usman Zico, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Bauchi.
Zico called on the house to pass the proposed law before the end of the current legislative assembly and present administration in the state.
He said that the bill should also be guided with penalties and fines for offenders as measures to stop acts of stigma and discrimination against his members.
According to him, the law would protect the dignity of people living with the virus.
“The State House of Assembly should look into the discrimination and stigmatisation bill, so that it becomes law before the end of the present administration and penalties be stated on any one found wanting either in public places or in gatherings,’’ he said.
Zico also pleaded with the State Government to establish more treatment and counselling centres across the state to enable members to access drugs and services in rural communities.
He said that the patients need their drugs as at when due as failure might lead to failure in treatment and positive results.
“The state government should please create more treatment centres across the state, because poverty makes it difficult for some of our people to reach out to the present centres for their drugs as such sometimes they skip medication which can lead to failure in treatment,’’ he said.
Zico appreciated the agency in-charge of HIV/AIDS in the state on their efforts to reduce poverty by distributing income generating machines to their members.
However, he urged the agency to do more in the area of income generation especially to widows that lost their husbands whom were the breadwinners of their respective families.
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