ABUJA: An HIV/AIDS expert, Dr Nandul Durfa, has warned that the sudden withdrawal of foreign funding for HIV/AIDS programmes could reverse decades of progress and expose young Nigerians to renewed risks unless the Federal Government intervenes urgently.
Durfa, Managing Director of Reach Care Foundation, said this on Sunday in Abuja while reacting to the termination of funding agreements by the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, following recent United States foreign aid policy changes.
According to him, the suspension of funding for HIV/AIDS services could lead to a dangerous resurgence of the disease if the Federal Government fails to fully fund prevention, treatment and care programmes.
He recalled that about 20 years ago, HIV/AIDS posed a major public health crisis in Nigeria, noting that support from the United States, through USAID, played a critical role in reducing infection rates.
“With the funding stopped without eliminating the virus, resistance will develop and the country could relapse into a worse epidemic,” Durfa warned.
He said young people, especially those under 20 who never experienced the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis, would be the most vulnerable.
Durfa urged the Federal Government to urgently provide funds for the procurement of anti-retroviral drugs, warning that any delay could have dire consequences, including mother-to-child transmission, rising infections and increased mental health challenges among patients.
He also called for a permanent alternative funding mechanism to avoid what he described as a “time bomb” in the health sector.
