A Director of Research and Consultant Paediatrician at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Dr Agatha David, has said it will be impossible to achieve SDG 3, Target 3.0 to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, if adolescents and young adults current testing rate in Nigeria is less than 25 per cent.

This is as she insisted that if, as a country, Nigeria fails to meet UNAIDS 95-95-95 goal for 2025, it is going to be impossible to meet that SDG of ending AIDS by 2030. Expressing regrets that adolescents and young adults are one of the major problems for achieving this goal, Dr David, who disclosed this during a media chat where she highlighted research activities, further lamented that adolescents and young adults living with HIV (AYLHIV) have the worst treatment outcomes of all age groups.

The Coordinator of Child and Adolescent HIV Programme in the institute said it is disheartening that the country is not on track to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goal for 2025, which stipulates that 95 per cent of people living with HIV should know their status, 95 per cent of those who know their status should be on life-saving antiretroviral therapy, and 95 per cent of those on antiretroviral therapy should be virally suppressed.

David, who stressed that this goal essential is for meeting the United Nations SDG 3 of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, stated that optimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy was necessary in order to achieve viral suppression, halt disease progression, prevent development of drug resistance, stop disease transmission and improve the quality of life of PLHIV.