In its commitment to enforcing the rights of the people living with HIV and AIDS , the Ondo State Government has warned that anybody caught discriminating against the PLWA in the areas of employment, medical treatment, hiring, assignment, promotion, demotion, transfer, retirement, among others, would face the law.

The Secretary to the Ondo State Government and Chairman, Ondo State Agency for the Control of AIDS, Dr. Aderotimi Adelola, stated this in a statement on Monday.

Speaking in Akure on Monday while delivering the keynote address at a sensitization program held to facilitate the enforcement of the HIV discrimination law in the state, Adelola warned that those who transmit the HIV to anyone risk a 10-year jail term and a fine of N500,000 or both.

The law, according to the commissioner, will check the spread of HIV and AIDS and eliminate the discrimination and stigmatisation of the PLWAs as most times, the rights of the people living with HIV are violated, causing them to suffer both the burden of the disease and the consequential loss of their rights.

“The stigmatization and discrimination discourage individuals infected with and affected with HIV from accessing health and social services, hence, the law stipulates further that anybody who discriminates against people living with HIV commits an offense and is liable to a fine of N100,000.00 or imprisonment of six months or both.

“This may obstruct their access to treatment and may affect their employment, housing and other rights which   adversely affect the vulnerability of others to be infected,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the state Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, said, “Ondo State is the first state in the country to make a law which broadly addresses the rights of the people living with the virus.”

He said the law would help to promote public awareness about the causes, modes of transmission, consequences, means of prevention and control of the HIV transmission.

Urging infected persons to declare their status to their spouses or sex partners, children and parents, the commissioner also called on health care professionals to take seriously the confidentiality of all medical information, particularly the identity and status of the PLWA in their possession.