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RE: What Is Your Contribution To World AIDS Day 2017?
That's a large number of people. Thankfully, the improvement in health no longer translate to AIDs being a death sentence. It is now like most diseases that don't have cure but could be managed. Thanks.
Yes, @greenrun. It is quite a huge number of people in the world. Nigeria alone contributes to about 10 % to that global total with about 3.5 million living with HIV/AIDS. New and better ways of management are key to curb further spread of the infectious disease. That is mainly what I've dedicated the last 20 years (about half) of my life doing: Research, prevention and care of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). My entire M.Sc. thesis was dedicated to millions of Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS.
My PhD thesis would be dedicated these same PLWHAs and those who suffer from hypertensive heart disease (HHD), a non-communicable disease (NCD).
That's some scary statistics. Using 192 million as Nigeria's population, 3.5 million is about 1.8% of the total population. That's a lot of people. Wow
The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) 2016 annual report highlights a prevalence rate of 3.0% (2014).
Yes, the statistics is scary, but HIV prevalence rate is lower now, because of the great work that has been done by all of us stakeholders and those who have died due to AIDS related and non-AIDS related diseases.
In 2002, Benue State alone had an HIV prevalence rate of 10%. It was a hot spot state where many of us had to visit to do thorough research of what was going on. I was privileged to work for UNAIDS at that time.
In Abuja too, during my internship in NIPRD (1997 & 1998), I observed that about 10 % of patients who were sent to us at the virology and immunology laboratory, from Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital tested positive to HIV. So, Nigeria has really come a long way in combating the spread of HIV.
Ok. That depends on the data they used in their calculation. I assumed Nigeria is 192 million, if I reduce that number the percentage goes higher. But between 1.8% to 3% is an alarming high rate of people infected. During your research, what particular thing did you discover to be the result of such high number of infected people?
Like you, in the past, I calculated prevalence rate dividing the number of PLWHAs by the total population of Nigerians. The number didn't tally with the one reported. I think the reason is that the subset of the population used for HIV sentinel survey, women attending antenatal clinic (ANC).
Generally, there are factors that determine health. From our in-depth interview (IDI) sessions with patients (PLHAs), nurses, doctors etc at FMC Makurdi, we discovered the following
That denial and complacency sounds like something that usually happens here.
I've always heard about the kola business which I still find hard to believe. But everyone can't be lying, so I guess it's true. But I doubt if that tradition is still happening as of now.
That poverty factor affects women more in particular and I still think it's a sad affair to watch one partner infect the other through risky lifestyle.
You did a thorough job as you just enumerated all the factors in one fell swoop. Thanks a lot.