OYSACA, GMI Synergize Against Drug Injection to Reduce HIV Prevalence.

The Oyo State Agency for the Control of AIDs (OYSACA) has expressed its readiness to synergize with a Nongovernmental Organization, GoodWorkers Ministry International (GMi) in order to prevent HIV among People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) across the State.

This was revealed by the Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr. Lanre Abass while receiving some members of the GMi who came on a familiarisation visit, to inform OYSACA about their roadmap, recently in his Office.

GoodWorkers Ministry International (GMi) is a non-profit, non-governmental and a faith based organisation engaged by the Society for the Family Health (SFH) to work on HIV prevention among the People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Oyo State.

While acknowledging the member of the organization for their timely visit, Dr. Abass stated that it is high time for everyone to kick against injection of drugs among the youth especially People Living with HIV in our community.

Abass explained that People who inject drugs (PWID) are one of the groups most affected by HIV and are 22 times more likely to have HIV than the general population as Injection drug use now accounts for an ever-growing proportion of people with HIV.

He noted that on average 1 in 10 of new HIV infections are caused by the sharing of needles.

The Executive Secretary then promised the Organization adequate cooperation by the Agency in order to curb the menace and charged them to make sure that at every stage of their interventions in the State, the Agency is fully carried along.

Earlier in his address, the Executive Director, GMI, Pastor Tunji Agboola disclosed that among the organization's roadmap are to discover more sites, Mobile HIV Counseling and Testing Services as partners notification Services would be highly intensified to reduce HIV prevalence in Oyo State.

Present at the meeting were, The Project Manager, OYSACA, Dr. Kayode Ogunkunle, Director Admin.& Supplies, Mr. Ajibola Oladotun, Community Mobilization Officer, Mrs. Olusola Jimoh and Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Mr. AbdulWahab Taiwo.