PRESS RELEASES

U.S. Gives More than $1 Billion to Fight HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

December 1, 2008

In a goodwill message at the 20th World AIDS Day celebration at Eagle Square in Abuja, U.S. Ambassador Robin Renee Sanders told the audience that the people and government of the United States, as friends and partners of the people and government of Nigeria, are working together to fight for care, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.  As Nigeria's largest donor in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the U.S. Government, through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has provided, since 2004, more than $1 billion U.S. Dollars to combat HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, with another $447 million dollars expected for 2009. 

"Just five years ago, only 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa living with HIV/AIDS were receiving treatment.  As of the end of September, 2008, in Nigeria alone, the Government of Nigeria, in partnership with the U.S. Government through the U.S. Mission in Nigeria, is supporting nearly 211,000 men, women, and children with treatment.  Together, we have helped and reached two million people with HIV counseling and testing, and more than 640,000 pregnant women have received health services for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV," said the U.S. Ambassador.