Fred Ezeh, Abuja

The preliminary outcome of the Nigeria Aids Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) has confirmed that HIV/AIDS burden in Nigeria has dropped by 15 percent.

Project supervisor Dr Gambo Aliyu, who gave the hint in Abuja, said the preliminary report also provided accurate and credible breakdown of state by state information on HIV/AIDS.

He also confirmed that the project was concluded in 22 weeks as against 24 weeks (July 17 to December 22, 2018), and 700 million dollars was spent out of 110 million dollars donated by US government.

He said the project was supposed to last for six months, but was concluded In five months by over 3,000 persons deployed in enumerated locations in states of Nigeria to undertake the task.

President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the project last year In Abuja and explained that the project was meant to ascertain the true state of HIV/AIDS burden in Nigeria and how best to approach the interventions.

He was unhappy that there was no available records to justify previous spendings and interventions, hence the decision by foreign donor partners to withdrew their financial and logistics interventions due to absence of reliable statistical document as regards HIV/AIDS burden in Nigeria.

He encouraged states government and all other stakeholders to support the survey so it could produce accurate or near accurate data of HIV/AIDS infection and treatment in Nigeria.

The president charged people involved in project to produce accurate and credible information on HIV/AIDS, that would assist Nigeria and other intervention partners in the fight.