Nigeria Launches National Workplace Plan On HIV/AIDS

Channels Tv

The Federal Government of Nigeria has launched a revised National Work Place and action plan on HIV/AIDS as part of efforts to end stigma and discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

At the launch, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Kabiru Turaki, said the review of the existing National Work Place Policy became imperative in the light of new epidemiological evidence on HIV and AIDS in the world.

He said the Federal Government would ensure that the rights and dignity of every Nigerian worker, irrespective of his or her HIV status, was respected at all times.

Stigma and discrimination is said to be one of the reasons many Nigerians have refused to know their HIV status, something the revised National Work Place and Action Plan on HIV and AIDS seeks to bring to an end.

The national president of Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Edward Ogenyi, appealed to the Federal Government to provide adequate treatment for persons infected with HIV/AIDS.

Although the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Professor John Idoko, expressed worries about the issue of stigma and discrimination, the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Dr. Joseph Kigbu, however, dropped a good news about the passage of the anti-stigmatisation bill.

With 3.4 million Nigerians said to be HIV positive, the need to enforce the Work Place Policy on Stigma and Discrimination has become imperative as it will encourage more Nigerians to know their HIV status.