By Sola Ogundipe The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Temitope Ilori, has cautioned Nigerians against HIV cure claims, stressing that modern treatment can only suppress the virus to undetectable levels and enable people living with HIV to live long, healthy lives.
Ilori, who spoke during a media training on HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and other prevention strategies, said people who test positive to HIV should commence antiretroviral (ARV) treatment promptly and remain on medication. At the event held in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), she said effective treatment has transformed HIV from an infection of certain death into a manageable condition.
“Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS, people who remain on effective treatment can maintain healthy immune systems, but feeling healthy after stopping medication does not mean the virus has disappeared,” she stated.
Expressing concern over people who abandon ARV therapy after told they have been cured and advised to stop taking their drugs, she said “There is no cure for HIV, as of today; some people have proposed that they have cures, but science says otherwise, those claims have not been tested. “To the best of my knowledge, it has not been documented scientifically that somebody was cured.
If you are living with HIV and someone tells you that you have been healed, don’t stop your medication.,” she asserted. Further, Ilori said consistent treatment can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels.“While ARV therapy can suppress HIV effectively, there is no cure for HIV as of today. An HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence, but it is not the same thing as being cured.
“For now, science offers something highly