By Our Reporter
CALABAR (CONVERSEER) – Cross River State Representative on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Rt. Hon. Otuekong Orok Duke, PhD, has called for inter-agency collaboration between government and partners, to curtail the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In a message to commemorate the 2025 World AIDS Day, Orok expressed deep concerns over what he described as “continuous spread” of the disease, while calling for a stop to the stigmatisation of persons who tested positive.
“Today, I join the government of Nigeria and the global community, to lend my voice to this decades-long pandemic. It is also worrisome to see that with the government’s efforts to end the spread, the prevalence rate is still high. Stigmatisation is also high, and this is responsible for the continued spread because, infected persons, out of fear of stigmatisation, rather remain discrete about their status”, Orok added.
Findings by UNAIDS indicate that there are over 1.3 million new infections in 2024. This figure remains almost unchanged from the year before.
The recent surge is also caused by the sudden withdrawal of funding, which has disrupted treatment and prevention programmes around the world in early 2025, and those mostly affected are the low and middle-income countries.
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UNAIDS modelling shows that if the funding permanently disappears, there could be an additional 6 million HIV infections and an additional 4 million AIDS-related deaths by 2029.
This year’s theme, “Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response,” is a call to urgent action.
The world must come together to restore funding, strengthen health systems, and prioritise community-led approaches that have consistently proven effective. Without renewed commitment, the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 will slip further out of reach.
