The South-East geo-political zone has a national Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV prevalence rate of 1.9, which is above the national average of 1.4.

At the commissioning of the South-East zonal office of the National Agency for Control of AIDS, NACA in Umuahia, Abia State, it was announced that out of about 10 thousand persons living with the virus, less than 2 thousand avail themselves of the anti-retroviral drugs that are said to be available and affordable.

The Director-General of NACA, Gambo Aliyu stated this at the ceremony, decried the scenario and urged the victims to avail themselves of the anti-retroviral therapy, ART. He added that taking the drugs would make the sufferers live healthy lives and carry on their normal activities.

Aliyu stressed the need for people to go for a test to know their HIV status and thus begin early to do the needful if tested positive, to make them live normal lives. He also advised against stigmatizing HIV/AIDS victims.

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