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AFRICA ACCOUNTS FOR 65 % OF GLOBAL HIV BURDEN
Africa accounts for about 25.9 million (65 per cent) of the global burden of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), with Nigeria contributing about 1.9 million, making it the fourth largest HIV burden country.
An estimated 39.9 million people were living with HIV across the globe in 2023, while 1.3 million people became newly infected with HIV the same year.
Consequently, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded over $45 million to the BRILLIANT consortium to implement a cooperative agreement under the “HIV Vaccine Innovation, Science and Technology Acceleration in Africa (HIV-VISTA).
The grant will enable Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique to lead research to develop a vaccine that is effective in preventing HIV to end the epidemic.
In another development, an initial 899,000 vaccine doses have been allocated to Nigeria and eight other countries across Africa hit hard by the monkeypox (mpox) surge, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other health organisations said.
Speaking with journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Temitope Ilori, said the Federal Government, through a collaborative effort led by the ‘Brilliant’ Study, embarked on five-year research to develop an effective vaccine for HIV.
She stated that the project, which was fully funded by USAID, under the support of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), placed Nigeria as the only country among the eight African countries with a trial site.
Ilori explained that the five-year research initiative was launched to find an effective vaccine for HIV that is mostly common among the youth, adding that this could contribute significantly to the goal of the Federal Ministry of Health in eradicating the virus.
Executive Director of the IHVN International Research Centre of Excellence and Nigerian Principal Investigator for the BRILLIANT research, Prof Alash’le Abimiku, explained that the project would bring a significant result towards ending HIV in Nigeria and Africa. He added that UNAIDS gave the country a target to end the spread of the virus by 2030.
UNAIDS Country Director, Dr Leo Zekeng, applauded the initiative as a ground-breaking step for global AIDS prevention. “At the core of our global strategy is ending inequalities and ending AIDS by 2030. Promoting science, research and development is also part of the effort,” Zekeng explained.
THE vaccines will go to the Central African Republic (CAR), Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.
“The largest number of doses – 85 per cent of the allocated vaccines – will go to DRC as the most affected country,” the global health agency said.
The vaccines are provided by Canada, Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), the United States and the European Union, including countries like France, Germany and Spain, along with the EU’s Health Emergency Response Authority.
The global health agency said this allocation to the nine countries marks a significant step towards a coordinated and targeted deployment of vaccines to stop the mpox outbreaks.
