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.”
