Recently, Anna and I spoke to a supporter of HIVEX in Nigeria. Although everyone involved is very happy we're working in South Africa, it's difficult to hear about areas we're not working with. We hope that one day there will be machines across all of Africa and the rest of the world. The man we spoke is HIV positive and look after AIDS orphans. He is currently working with a project mapping HIV incidence across Nigeria. Several things he said were fascinating and made it clear there are many reasons why the treatment HIV is so problematic in Africa.
The official numbers for HIV infection rates in Nigeria are around 3% and with such a large population that means over 3 million people are infected. But these estimates come from flawed testing techniques. In 2007 3% of medical facilities had HIV testing and in 2009 there was one testing unit for every 53,000 Nigerians. Our friend said in his experience 75% of people have no idea of their status and he put the infection rate closer to 25%, going up to 60% in the western parts of Nigeria. Approximately 80-95% of HIV infections in Nigeria are a result of heterosexual sex and between 2006 and 2009 contraception was only used by 14.7% of the population. Educating people about contraception can be very difficult because of societal attitudes: in 2001 a radio advertisement for condoms was suspended: on the basis that suggesting using a condom would make pre-martial sex acceptable behaviour. Since then there have been more successful campaigns, including texting people information and using the image Femi Kuti, the son of famous Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, who died from AIDS-related illness in 1997.
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| You can't tell who has AIDS by looking at them, please protect yourself |
Recently the cost of living in Nigeria has increased dramatically, I was told even the middle classes are struggling. Nigeria has a very young population, in 2009 it was reported 42% of the population were under the age of 15 Nigeria and since 1991 the age expectancy has fallen from 54 for women and 53 for men to 48 and 46 respectively. There are around 2,500,000 AIDS orphans under 18 and the recent economic difficulties have lead to a rise of young people going into prostitution and exposing themselves to HIV. In North Western Nigeria around 50% of girls are married by the time they are 15 and 80% of girls are married by the time they are 18. This is problematic not just because their husbands are often much older and more likely to be HIV positive, but studies have shown young women are much less likely to have accurate knowledge about HIV. In 2009 only 25% of men and women between the ages of 15 and 24 correctly identified ways to prevent sexual transmission of HIV and rejected major misconceptions about HIV transmission.
The man I spoke with said intravenous drug use was another factor in the spread of HIV and estimated there are around 1.8 million drug users in Nigeria. Only 25% of intravenous drug users know that HIV can be transmitted through shared needles. The problem is especially difficult to tackle as drug smuggling exists at an institutionalised level. Nigerian gangs across the world control 90% of the world's heroin and last year a Nigerian politician was arrested at Lagos airport attempting to board a flight smuggling 4.4lbs of cocaine. It's thought he was hoping to sell it to pay for his election campaign.
Seeing the struggles in his Nigeria has only made the man I spoke to more passionate about the cause. He wants to study HIV in more depth and work on ways he can better help his country. He spoke of a method called “Education through listening” which tries to better communities by encouraging them to work together for solutions rather than forcing strategies on them. He sounded very hopeful for the future and I hope we'll be able to work with him one day.
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| Fela Kuti performing in 1980 |
Fela Kuti was a fascinating character. I would have loved to have met him. His music and his life reflected his beliefs, and, at a time when there was no knowledge of HIV / AIDS he had many wives, once marrying 27 of his singers and dancers. He exposed corruption, fired up Africa with his song Zombie, about military rule, and ran for President. I would like such energy backing us… here, dancing, not playing, interviewed by Ginger Baker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SQH94Pifc&feature=related]
We got information for this blog from these sources
http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=NIGERIA#Summary
We got information for this blog from these sources
http://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx?crName=NIGERIA#Summary
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ReplyDeleteWow - that is a real eye-opener for someone like me who worked in the "AIDS industry" for years. Sadly, I do believe it is an industry - and the ones who benefit are the big pharma companies.
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