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The Gombe State Agency for the Control of AIDS has identified gender-based violence as a contributing factor to the rising cases of the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus among children in the state.
The agency’s Programme Officer, Hassan Mohammed, condemned the spread of the disease during an interview with journalists on Saturday, December 9, 2023, on the commemoration of the 2023 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Mohammed said the cases of rape of children and homosexuality among adolescents increased the prevalence of HIV infections.
He added that the governor of the state, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, recently suspended some state government officials as a result of sexual harassment of children.
“In SACA, we believe, these are one of the drivers towards HIV in Gombe State. Small children and even mad people are being raped. That is why they transfer these kinds of infections to the society. So it became a problem within our society these days,” he said.
Gombe State is said to be one of the states with the highest cases of HIV/AIDS in the northern part of Nigeria.
According to the North-East Zonal Coordinator of the National Centre for the Control of Aids, Tobia John, Taraba, Kaduna, Gombe and the Federal Capital Territory have the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the north.