Nigerian President Launches National AIDS Campaign

On Monday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo announced the launching of a national campaign to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. "In Nigeria, it is estimated that over 3 million of the adult population and an additional 800,000 children are infected," said Obasanjo in Abuja to an audience of top government officials and representatives from international donor agencies. "These figures are increasing and Nigeria has in fact been recognized as one of the nations that is most at risk with regard to the projected growth of the disease," he said. By 2010, the campaign aims to cut the HIV adult prevalence rate by at least 25 percent and to halve the spread of STDs, according to a released document. Since Nigeria's first recorded case in 1986, the number of Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS rose to 2.7 million in 1999, and reached 3.47 million in 2001, according to federal health ministry figures.

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