The Kwara State government is stepping up efforts to ensure zero incidence of HIV in the state by the year 2015.

The state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Abdul Kayode Issa, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital.

Issa disclosed that, by 2015, the state would, in consonance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 eradicate the spread of HIV/AIDS in the state.

He said the ministry had so far recorded about 70 percent of success towards meeting the MDGs 2015 target on reduction of HIV/AIDS prevalence.

The commissioner said that his ministry was collaborating with several donor agencies across the country and the globe in its bid to meet the 2015 target of total eradication of HIV/AIDS in the state.

He said the ministry would continue to partner with other concerned sectors, including the state ministry of Education, Social welfare and Tourism, and Kwara state Aids Control Agency (KWASACA) among others, in order to meet the 2015 target.

Also, the state coordinator on HIV/AIDS, Hajia Salmata Lawal, said the ministry has embarked on rigorous testing of pregnant women across the state, to ensure zero Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT) of the virus.

"In fact," Lawal said, "the exercise is such that when and whenever we find a pregnant woman, we take her and ensure such woman goes through counseling/testing to curb Mother-To-Child-Transmission".