Kaduna wins UNAIDS health prize

Kaduna State has been selected as best performing state during the first phase of the 2015 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week, MNCH.

A statement by Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said the prize was conveyed in a letter signed by Dr. Bilali Camara, country director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS.

According to him, the letter, which was addressed to the governor, said Kaduna State won the prize because during the MNCH week its hospitals counselled and tested 84,000 pregnant women for HIV, and referred everyone that tested positive to a treatment facility.

UNAIDS said the letter to the governor and the prize awarded “serve to witness this unparalleled nationwide MNCH Week’s success in Kaduna State.” It noted that the state advanced the objective to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Aruwan said the state’s healthcare system also got a boost as MTN Foundation selected five state hospitals to benefit from its maternity ward support project, MWSP.

The beneficiary hospitals are Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital, Kaduna, General Hospital, Kafanchan, Jubrin Maigari Hospital, Birnin-Gwari, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba Hospital, Zaria and Dabo Lere Memorial Hospital, Saminaka.