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THE recent report that Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has dropped to 1.4 per cent is laudable. Before the survey, Nigeria had the second highest HIV/AIDS prevalence with 3.2 million persons living with the disease. The report is the outcome of the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey organised by the Federal Government and other stakeholders. The survey had a large sample size of 225,000 persons drawn from more than 97,000 households across the 774 local governments in the country.
According to it, the number of women with HIV is twice the number of men that has it. The survey also shows that Akwa Ibom has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country. It also reveals that Northern Nigeria has a lower HIV/AIDS burden than the South. While the North West has the lowest prevalence rate of the disease at 0.6 per cent, the South South zone has the highest with 3.1 per cent. According to the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr. Sani Aliyu, Nigeria trails behind South Africa, Mozambique and India.
The report that HIV/AIDS prevalence is dropping in Nigeria is cheering but the nation should not rest on its oars. The war against the pandemic must continue. The enlightenment campaigns on the disease must be intensified. Approximately, 150,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in Nigeria in 2018. Only 33% of those positive with the condition in Nigeria had access to anti-retroviral treatment. Nigeria’s HIV epidemic affects all population groups and geographic areas of the country.
The nation’s health authorities must work together to achieve the objective of the National Strategic Framework (2017- 2021), which aims at ending HIV/AIDS by achieving zero new infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination. The elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is indeed a priority that should be sustained at this stage of the fight. There is the need to stop stigma and discrimination that have continued to fuel the spread of the disease.
However, it is remarkable that Nigeria has made strides in the battle against the disease. In 2016, it had 220,000 new HIV infections and 160,000 AIDS-related deaths. There were 3,200,000 people living with HIV in 2016. About 30 per cent of those affected by the disease had access to anti-retroviral therapy. Among pregnant women living with HIV, 32 per cent had access to prophylaxis to prevent transmission of HIV to their children. Among people living with HIV, approximately 24 per cent had suppressed viral loads. Despite the efforts to stem the spread of the disease, it is sad that many people living with HIV in Nigeria are unaware of their status. Unfortunately, Nigeria falls short of providing the recommended number of HIV testing and counseling sites. Also the fact that many people are not accessing the anti-retroviral treatment has accounted for many AIDS-related deaths in the country. The spread of tuberculosis in the country has not helped in the war against the HIV/AIDS pandemic because a combination of the two means more deaths. Therefore, due attention should also be shifted to halting TB, too.
Since six states, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Kaduna, Lagos, Oyo and Kano, account for 41 per cent of people living with HIV, it is imperative that the fight against the disease in these states is strengthened. We commend the efforts of the NACA so far and urge it to do more. There is no doubt that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is one of the world’s most serious public health challenges. However, there is a global commitment to stop new HIV infections and ensure that everyone living with HIV has access to treatment.
Globally, there were approximately 36.9 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2017. Of these, 1.8 million were children while an estimated 1.8 million individuals worldwide became newly infected with HIV in 2017. This is why Nigeria must invigorate the war against the disease.
