USAID launches five-year initiative in Nigeria to strengthen HIV, TB services

U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Terence McCulley on Tuesday in Abuja, Nigeria, launched a five-year, $224 million USAID program, titled Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV/AIDS Services (SIDHAS), that aims to "increas[e] access to high-quality comprehensive HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis prevention, treatment, care and related services through improved efficiencies in service delivery," the Daily Trust reports (Odeyemi/Odafor, 5/8). 

McCulley said, "This project is building on the achievements of [the] predecessor Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria, GHAIN, project to increase access and coverage of high-quality, comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment and improve efficiencies in service delivery between 2004 and 2010," according to the Vanguard. USAID Country Director Dana Mansuri "said over the five-year period (2011-2015), the project will assist the government of Nigeria to reach the following key beneficiaries: 252,000 men, women and children to receive antiretroviral therapy; 1.7 million pregnant women to receive counseling and testing for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, while 41,220 pregnant women will complete antiretroviral treatment," the newspaper writes (Ojeme, 5/9).