CONCERNED by the increasing rate of deaths through Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), President Goodluck Ebele  Jonathan on Tuesday, declared to do everything that is necessary to ensure that no Nigerian child dies of the disease in the near future.

He has also requested governors of the 36 states of the federation to make similar commitment as his administration is working on a blueprint to harmonise the fight against the dreaded disease, in order to have good value for the money and efforts placed in it.

Speaking at a meeting, to review the Presidential Emergency Response Plan (PERP) on HIV/AIDS at the Presidential Villa, he regretted that not much has been achieved in the nation’s effort to curtail the spread and therefore called for a comprehensive HIV/AIDS management plan that should spell out the role of all stakeholders.

He said: “from today, we should know that as a president of this country, I don’t want any citizen to die from AIDS. The governors should also make that commitment.

It is our responsibility as president and governors in the country. The development partners can only help us.”

The President rejected the target of 80 per cent prevention and treatment coverage by the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), saying that the committee must work towards 100 per cent target even if it is not possible to meet the objective.

The President noted: “NACA says its target is 80 per cent. What should the fate of the remaining 20 per cent be? They should die? No. If that is the international target based on certain logistics, we must target 100% so that development partners will know that the assistance they are giving to us is translating into something positive.”

On the proposed comprehensive plan, Jonathan remarked that it should point out the quantity of anti-retroviral drug doses required in the country at a particular time, the contributions of various tiers of government as well as development partners.

According to him, “we must know for example, how many anti-retroviral drugs doses we need as a nation, for a month and for a year; how many do we need for Bayelsa State? How many do we need for Enugu State? How many do we need for Lagos State? How many do we need for Benue State, etc?

“How can we fund it? What are the states spending? What is the Federal Government spending? What are we getting from our development partners? The funding gap: can we collectively procure these drugs to reduce cost? How do we make sure that all Nigerians even know anything about HIV/AIDS to avoid new infections or transmission