… Enrolls over 500, 000 in health insurance schemes
By: Felix Ikpotor
The Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, has stated that the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the state remains at very low level of 3.6 percent.
The clarification followed a recent viral poster which alleged that the state was at 86 percent high on prevalence, causing panic amongst residents.
Oreh at a media parley with health correspondents said data from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Action on the Control of AIDS (NACA) shows that the prevalence rate in the state is low.
She said the viral poster was a deliberate disinformation from the initiators.
“Recently there was a poster that was circulating that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the state was 86 percent and that people should be careful going into Rivers State. It was a clear case of disinformation for whatever reason we don’t know but the prevalence in Rivers State is 3.6 percent,” she said.
She said the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare have also denied the claims in the viral poster as not emanating from them.
” We reached out to the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) because the poster was developed as if it was an information coming from Federal Ministry of Health. We needed them to counter it first and I commend the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Within 24 hours of our request, they had put in their statement, ” she added.
The commissioner stressed that the state has a large proportion of persons who already know their HIV status, adding that the state is making sufficient investment to ensure that more people are tested and also treated.
“We have upward of 90 percent who know their status but it’s not yet at 95 percent and we also need to make sufficient investment so that we are not only reliant in the vagaries of international donor funding or funding from Federal Government to the states dedicated for HIV/AIDS which is part of why we commenced the enrolment our people into the Social Health Insurance Scheme, so that helps to encourage people to get treatment.
“Our main target is getting more people to be screened and know their status and getting much more of those who know their status who have screened positive to go for treatment, ” she stressed.
The health commissioner also disclosed that the state has a greater number of person viral load surpressed persons in the state, attributing it to the efforts of the state’s health workers.
“For Rivers State, those on treatment by virtue of the 115 treatment centres that we have across the state, we have a 98 percent viral load supression. What that tells us is that our health workforce is doing enormous work even in this context of reduction in international donor funds for HIV/AIDS, ” she maintained.
Oreh also announced that over five hundred thousand persons are now being enrolled on the Rivers State Contribitory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP).
She said the number of enrollees surged between from one hundred thousand in April 2024 and to over half a million by December 2025.
“In 2024 His Excellency (Governor Siminialayi Fubara) approved the Contributory Health Protection Prugramme. Enrollment of beneficiaries started in April and by August this year, we had scaled 100, 000 beneficiaries across the 23 LGAs. Now where we stand as at now in the total number of health insured in Rivers State has crossed half a million and that is from between RIVCHPP and the National Health Insurance Agency, ” the commissioner stated.
She also said the ministry has gone further by getting both persins with disabilities and those with HIV/AIDS enrolled onto the scheme.
Giving and overview of other investments in health, the commissioner said some zonal and general hospitals have been completed and ready for commissioning while work are at various stages on others. She listed the Ahoada General Hospital and Omoku Zonal hospital as both ready for commissioning while those of Bonny, Opobo, Degema are still ongoing.
She also said the 135 primary health care centres being rehabilitated by the state government in partnership with the World Bank would soon be handed over to the State Hospitals Management Board.
The health commissioner noted that emphasis is on rural health care delivery to lessen the burden of referrals to Port Harcourt.
