70,000 Nigerian children born with HIV

Around 70,000 newborns in Nigerian are HIV positive, according to a new report from the country's government.

The figures from the Ministry of Health were made public by Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) John Idoko while he was visiting the southwestern state of Ogun yesterday (April 12th). 

He said that NACA is forming a partnership with the Ogun State government to implement ways of controlling the spread of the condition in the region.

Mr Idoko stated any new measures need to be an improvement on the existing State Action Committee on AIDS initiatives, which are being used to eliminate mother-to-child transmissions.

He added authorities in the country were willing to partner with any agency to improve the health of the Nigerian people and combat the triple threat to newborns of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which are all prevalent among pregnant women in the African nation.