The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (ALCO) has impacted greatly on port workers and others, so says the chairperson of the committee in charge of the Project; Dr. Comfort Datong.
The ALCO, which is in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) is targetted at wiping out incidence of HIV/AIDS among port workers in particular and transport workers in general.
Dr Datong made the assertion on Wednesday at the second leg of the committee’s HIV campaign Component at the Tin Can Island port in Apapa.
She disclosed that the project is not limited to HIV alone, but focuses on any order infection, that is associated with HIV, such as like sexually transmitted disease, such that will hasten up infection of HIV.
According to her, the committee’s primary assignment is to check for HIV status, after which appropriate referral will be given.
“The primary assignment is to check on your HIV status; if it is negative, alright, but, if it is positive we refer you to the referral centre to take care of you’’
“If we also discover that you have vagina discharge or urinary discharge; that is you have a sexually transmitted disease, we refer you to referral centre, so that they will take care of you, she explained.
Dr Datong however advice transport sector workers and stakeholders not relent on checking their HIV status regularly.
She also acknowledged that the number of people who came out for Wednesday awareness campaign and specifically for HIV test is not as many as previously, a development she attributed to the success of the previous awareness campaigns.
She disclosed that the HIV Component of the Abidjan-Lagos Trade and Transport Facilitation Project is aimed at ‘’increasing access to HIV prevention , basic treatment, support and care services for vulnerable groups with particular attention to transport workers , migrants, sex workers, Customs, and Immigration officials and the local population living and working along the trade corridor’’.
Dr Datong also noted that results that have been received within the Tin Can port and Lagos Port Complex since 2012 when the project started has surpassed ALCO’s previous target of 83 percent.
