WHO: More than 4 million in poor, low-income countries receive treatment for HIV/AIDS

From This Day in Nigeria:

Over four million people received Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) in middle and low income countries at the close of 2008, the latest report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) entitled “Towards Universal Access: Scaling up Priority HIV Interventions in the Health Sector”, has said.

This came as the Nigerian Federal Government maintained that over 60 per cent of patients in the country, had received free treatment for the disease.

International statistics on polio also listed Nigeria as the leading polio endemic country out of 22 nations, including India and Pakistan, even as Federal Government insisted that polio cases were on the decline in the country.

The HIV report said the number represents 36 per cent increase in one year and a ten-fold increase over five years, according to the new report released by WHO, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

"This report shows tremendous progress in the global HIV/AIDS response," said WHO’s Director-General, Margaret Chan. "But we need to do more."