Independent
CHIOMA UMEHA
Experts have stressed on the need for every Nigerian women to know their HIV status before getting pregnant to help them plan their pregnancy, just as they called for improved early infant diagnosis services to curb HIV infections in children.
One of them, Dr Ijaodola Olugbenga, Assistant Director, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) team, National AIDS and STIs Control Programme, also decried the low pediatric HIV case identification rate and lack of comprehensive data reporting on cases in the country.
Dr. Olugbenga, who spoke in Calabar recently at a three-day workshop to reinvigorate and produce a work plan for journalists, said that it is important to develop state specific realistic approach to improve Antenatal Clinic (ANC), ANC Testing and PMTCT coverage Development.
The journalists are members of the Journalist’s Alliance for the Prevention of Mother-To- Child Transmission of HIV and AIDS (JAPiIN).
The workshop was organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in collaboration with UNICEF.
