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Lagos State is stepping up efforts to ensure that people living with HIV are diagnosed early, promptly placed on treatment and retained in care until they achieve viral suppression, as the state begins implementing a three-year strategy to close persistent gaps in its HIV response.
The renewed push is contained in the 2025–2027 Lagos State Strategic Plan on HIV, launched by the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) as part of efforts to strengthen prevention, testing, treatment and care across the state.
The strategy places particular emphasis on underserved populations, where limited access to testing and healthcare services continues to create challenges in identifying people living with HIV and linking them to appropriate treatment.
Speaking during the dissemination of the plan at BWC Hotel, Victoria Island, the Chief Executive Officer of LSACA, Folakemi Animashaun, said despite progress recorded in the state, important gaps remained that required urgent and sustained attention.
“Despite the gains recorded, critical gaps remain and require sustained attention, particularly in reaching underserved populations, strengthening HIV prevention and testing, ensuring timely linkage to treatment, improving retention in care and achieving viral suppression,” Animashaun said.
She explained that the strategic plan was intended to give government institutions, healthcare providers, communities, civil society organisations and development partners a common framework for coordinating programmes and resources towards measurable HIV outcomes.
According to her, implementation of the plan has already commenced across the state, with the dissemination providing an opportunity for stakeholders to review progress and identify areas requiring greater intervention before 2027.
Animashaun urged stakeholders to move beyond simply identifying challenges to finding more effective ways of deploying available resources, stressing that better coordination would be critical to improving the state’s HIV outcomes.
She said LSACA would continue to coordinate the state’s HIV response, mobilise resources, monitor implementation and promote evidence-based decision-making in the design and execution of programmes.
The agency’s approach also recognises that successful HIV control goes beyond testing people for the virus, as those diagnosed must be connected to treatment quickly and supported to remain in care.
Animashaun acknowledged the leadership of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), as well as the contributions of ministries, departments and agencies, development and implementing partners, civil society organisations, community networks and healthcare workers to the state’s HIV response.
She, however, stressed that the success of the new strategy would depend largely on sustained partnerships and adequate financing, particularly as the state seeks to reach populations that remain underserved.
“The successful implementation of the Strategic Plan would depend on sustained collaboration, effective coordination, adequate resource mobilisation and a shared commitment to improving HIV prevention, treatment and care outcomes across Lagos State,” Animashaun said.
