WOMEN AND HIV/AIDS IN NIGERIA

BETWEEN WOMEN AND HIV/AIDS IN NIGERIA

This issue of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria has remained the most pressing issue of concern over the years, and has attracted the attention of non-governmental organizations domestically and internationally. This is due to the fact that various Nigerian governments have not paid adequate attention toward reversing the epidemic. Historically, studies have shown that the first two HIV cases in Nigeria were identified in 1985 and were reported at an international AIDS conference in 1986. Since then, no effort has been made by government to assess HIV situation in the country until in 1991 when the federal ministry of health made their first attempt to assess the situation, the result showed that 1.8 percent were infected with HIV, and subsequent surveillance report revealed that during the 1990s, the HIV prevalence rose from 3.8 percent in 1993 to 4.5 percent in 1998.

However, hope was restored in 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo established National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), and in 2001, he set up HIV Emergency Plan (HEAP). Despite these positive intentions, in 2006, it was estimated that just 7 percent infected women and men were receiving antiretroviral therapy and only 0.2 percent of pregnant women were receiving treatment to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV. In 2005, studies showed that 240,000 children were living with HIV most of whom became infected from their mothers. Another study also showed that 80 percent of HIV infections in Nigeria are transmitted through heterosexual sex and this due to transfusions account for up to 10 percent of new infections in Nigeria. Moreover, women are particularly affected with the epidemic in Nigeria. In 2006 for example, UNAIDS estimated that women accounted for 6.15 percent of adults aged 15 and above living with HIV. All these in my own opinion should be attributed to the poor health care system we have in Nigeria, which is also characterized by corruption and mismanagement. This is because large parts if the country lack even basic health care provision making it difficult to establish adequate HIV testing services.
Finally, I think if the dream of the present administration is to make Nigeria one of the twentieth most industrialized economies of the world by the year 2020, the problems militating against health care system in Nigeria must be dealt with in its entirety. Secondly, since women suffer most without their consent, they should be allowed to participate in the decision making process so as to find the best way out.

NURA IRO MA’AJI
SOCIETY FOR YOUTH AWARENESS AND HEALTH DEVELOPMENT (SYAHD) KANO STATE, NIGERIA
nuramaaji2000@yahoo.co.uk
+2348025699001