Controversy Trails Rate Of HIV/AIDS In Nigeria

By Peterclaver Egbochue

Although, there seems to be an increased awareness on the adverse implication of a HIV/AIDS ravaged society and the need for people to adopt healthy lifestyle, yet the spread of the scourge in Nigeria has not reduced drastically.

Experts argue that this was the result of Nigeria’s poor health care delivery system. While the disease is already witnessing a reduction in some other countries, Nigeria’s health authorities have not demonstrated enough commitment in arresting the spread of the disease.

Experts who met at the American Conference on the Treatment of HIV, which held in Denver, Colorado in the United States, not too long ago, further strengthened this position.

Their assessment was that infection rate had been on the rise just because the country was no longer taking reasonable precautions to protect the vulnerable members of the society against the spread of the disease and the inevitable consequence, which is a high mortality rate.

According to Margaret Lampe of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria increased by almost 500,000 in three years, while the number of AIDS-related deaths also witnessed a marginal rise to 217,148 within the same period.

Dr. Jean Anderson of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, Maryland, noted that there has been an increase in the rate of infection through blood transfusion and mother-to-child transmission, despite the fact that such forms of transmission are easily preventable.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in a recent report averred that most deaths in the country were disease-related. From the diseases identified in the report, HIV/AIDS accounted for much of the deaths.

Since its discovery in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS, has been a critical health issue for women and men as the epidemic continues to undermine development efforts worldwide and mostly afflict populations already beset by extreme poverty and lack of awareness.

HIV/AIDS has been particularly noted to affect the working population and preventing women and men from making meaningful contributions to development and improvement of families while at the household level, the epidemic increases the burden of care and erodes savings.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its recent report entitled ‘Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria’, identified malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, hepatitis B, measles and some others as among the killer diseases in the country.

 “The proportions of those infected with pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, yellow fever and measles were equally significant accounting for over 45 percent cases in both sexes in the reference period,” the report stated.

From the report, the editorial emanating from it concluded that “the prevailing strategy” to win the war against the HIV/AIDS pandemic had not worked.

The MDG goal number 6 calls for the halting and beginning of the reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS before the end of 2015. About 59 percent of adults living with HIV are women.

However, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has since dismissed the claim as baseless, insisting that Nigeria was winning the war against HIV/AIDS.

The director-general of NACA, Prof. John Idoko, however, said the report only gave unfounded percentages of AIDS deaths without stating the total number of deaths upon which the percentages were based.

“The total number of deaths and the number of deaths due to AIDS which resulted in the percentages were not given. Even the “Summary Distribution of Deaths by Causes, Year and Sex (2010-2014)” – Table 2.2a at page 7 of the report did not capture HIV/AIDS among the diseases.”

The NACA DG insisted that if the factual AIDS deaths given were taken into cognizance, malaria which accounted for 108,453 deaths in 2012 and 46,612 deaths in 2014, according to the ‘Summary distribution of deaths by causes, year and sex’, by far accounted for more deaths than AIDS in Nigeria within the period.

Idoko, said HIV prevalence had declined from 5.8 percent in 2001 to 4.1 percent in 2010 and that new HIV infections declined by about 50 percent from 338,423 in 2005 to 176,701 in 2015. He maintained that HIV/AIDS had been in decline in Nigeria in the past five years, due to improved funding by the Federal Government and the sustained efforts of international partners.

According to him, this has made it possible for the number of people living with HIV who are on Anti Retroviral Therapy to sharply increase from 359,181 in 2010 to 747,382 in 2014.

“There are more remarkable improvements attributable to Nigeria’s HIV response. For instance, the number of HIV counseling and testing sites across the country from 1,046 in 2010 to 8,114 in 2014. The number of people tested for HIV has significantly increased from 1,380,418 in 2010 to 7,101,636 in 2014,” he further stated.

On Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), Idoko said the number of sites had increased from 675 in 2010 to 6283 in 2014 while the number of HIV positive pregnant women who received anti-retroviral prophylaxis to pregnant mother to child transmission has increased by over 87 percent from 33,891 in 2010 to 63,350 in 2014.

He said, “From these figures, it is clear that Nigeria has made significant progress in AIDS response. Effective antiretroviral treatment provides a dual effect of saving the lives of people living with HIV and sharply interrupting the transmission of HIV within the community.

“With improved domestic budgeting for HIV/AIDS and sustained external funding, there are plans to expand the coverage of antiretroviral treatment to 1.2 million adults and children by 2017 through the establishment of 2000 additional treatment sites.

“This and other prevention and control activities are important steps towards achieving an end to AIDS epidemic by the year 2030. “

Only recently, the country director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Bilali Camara, has said that Nigeria requires $1.2bn (N236.4 trillion) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in the country.

Camara who said this at a workshop on the 90-90-90 treatment target put together by UNAIDS in collaboration with NACA, observed that foreign donors provide $600,000 (N118.2 million), which represents 50 per cent of the funds required for the treatment programme, while Nigeria provides 25 per cent of the funds required.

According to Mr. Camara, the fund provided by Nigerian government was grossly inadequate to close the treatment gap in the country, adding that Nigeria needs more domestic funding to effectively tackle HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country.

He said the state governments had not shown enough commitment in the area of resource allocation to fight the disease, adding that “There is lack of leadership at state level to address the issue in pragmatic way.”

His words, “Our intention is to ensure that journalists reporting HIV/AIDS keep on helping the public to understand and support the drive to achieve the target by 2020. The participation of representatives of people living with HIV will give us an opportunity to get new ideas that will keep Nigeria on the path of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”

The country director said the target would ensure that by the year 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV would know their HIV status.

“90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral load suppression,” he said.

The National coordinator of the Network of people Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Mr. Edward Ogenyi, noted that when people living with HIV understand the 90-90-90 target and drive the process, it would send the message down to the communities.

“It will also ensure that more Nigerians will be tested for HIV and the ones who need treatment will access it,” he said. “The target motivates those who are already on treatment to adhere to it so they can suppress the virus and continue to live a healthy and productive life.”