THISDAYonline

Vice President Atiku Abubakar has assured a delegation from GEDE Foundation/AIDS and Infections Diseases Research Institute of government support during a one-day seminar to be organised by the body in Abuja today.

Atiku gave the assurance when the chairman, Scientific Advisory Board of the foundation, Mr. Hans Wolf, led a delegation of board members to his office in Abuja on a courtesy visit yesterday.

The vice president stated that the seminar could not have come at a more appropriate time as government was now involved in the creation of awareness and control of the tripple diseases of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "I understand that you are here to organise an interactive seminar on the production of HIV vaccines and infectious disease tomorrow. Your seminar could not have come at a more appropriate time, for the Nigerian government is at present involved in the creation of awareness about the disease and its control," he said.

He expressed hope that government would learn from the result of the seminar, adding that members of the delegation would also learn from what government had achieved since it began the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mr. Wolf, said the delegation had been in the country for two days to see the progress of the initiative which the foundation had conceptualised to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and tuberculosis.

He added that the foundation would also focus on the fight against Tuberculosis and malaria which had always been part of the fatal diseases prevalent in Nigeria, but which have recently assumed prominence with the advent of HIV/AIDS.

Wolf said that productivity would increase by 25 per cent if the scourge of HIV/AIDS malaria and tuberculosis were eliminated. He advocated brain storming by the group as a way of proffering solutions to eliminating the diseases.

The Minister of Health, professor Lambo, lauded the drop in prevalence of HIV to 5 per cent in the country from 5.7 per cent, warning that with Nigeria's large population, we are the third largest victims of the disease in the world.

He suggested a multi-disciplinary approach to curtailing the disease adding that the diversity in the background of the delegation, their desire to adopt a method of efficient networking, and technical co-operation was highly commendable.

the delegation revealed that the foundation was lose to producing vaccine against HIV/AIDS infection.

The chairman, National Action Committee Against AIDS (NAC), Prof. Babatunde Oshiotimehin, was also present.