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Alarming rate of HIV infections
By Sun News Publishing
Friday, September 25, 2009
Editorial Index


[b]The war against the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV), the germ that causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), has suffered a major setback with the report that Nigeria now records 370,000 new infections annually.

The claim by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) corroborates the latest report by the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS), which opines that cases of new HIV infections are on the rise globally. UNAIDS affirmed that there are about 45 million new HIV infections yearly and three million deaths. Out of the three million infected people in Nigeria, Benue State has the highest number and the age group that is affected falls between 25-34 years, while Cross River and Ekiti states have eight and one percent infection rates respectively.

In Nigeria, the situation is precarious as about only 350,000 out of the three million people with the virus are currently accessing treatment. This represents less than half the number of people that are supposed to be on anti-retroviral drugs put at over 850,000.[/b]
Another debilitating factor against the fight on HIV/AIDS, is the inability of some State Action Committees on AIDS (SACA) to transform to agencies. As a result of this, the country might lose World Bank’s funding facilities. According to the Director-General of NACA, Prof. John Idoko, when they are agencies, they become legal instruments of the states and as such the states are bound to fund them.

Already, the World Bank has given the June 2011 deadline for states to transform SACAs to agencies or they will not access its loans. Currently, only 15 states have transformed from SACAs and, therefore, have legal status.

It is disheartening that after all efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, the monster is still rampaging with more new infections on a daily basis. What the situation demands is that all the stakeholders should step up action in the war against the pandemic. Since some states are yet to transform their NACAs to agencies, they should do so immediately to enable us continue to access World Bank’s funding facilities. A situation where only 15 states’ NACAs have transformed to agencies in a country of 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not good in our fight against AIDS.

The time has, indeed, come for NACA to review its strategy. The recent poor result in containing the disease is a demonstration of the failure of current strategies That more and more people are being infected daily with HIV shows that the sensitization programmes are not working as effectively as they should. It is time to re-emphasize abstinence as perhaps the best strategy in combating the scourge since some of the other strategies appear not be yielding the much needed results. Let the AIDS campaign be driven by abstinence as was the practice in most of our cultures before the advent of Western education and lifestyle.

People can still be in love without sex. In other words, sex can wait till marriage. Condom use, which is at the heart of the current HIV sensitization programmes and campaigns, appears not to be working effectively in halting the spread of the disease. Rather than halt its spread, it is believed to be fueling the urge to experiment with sex instead of abstaining from it until marriage.

Married couples should remain with one faithful partner and shun those behaviours that can predispose them to contracting the virus. Those already infected should not involve in unprotected sex, while those without the virus should engage in health-promoting behaviours that would ensure that they maintain their sero-status. Those with the virus should not think that they have been handed a death sentence. They should understand that AIDS is not the end of life. People with AIDS can, and do, live positively and long too. There is no need to go underground and spread the virus to unsuspecting sexual partners. It serves no useful purpose and those doing so subject themselves to higher risks of being re-infected with greater consequences.

Parents should inculcate in their children the right values that would encourage moral upbringing. Above all, let efforts be stepped up on voluntary testing and counselling so that many Nigerians can be aware of their sero-status and adopt behaviour-modification strategy to ensure healthy living. That, we believe, would go a long way in stemming the spread of the disease.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/editorial/2009/sept/25/editorial-25-09-2009-001.htm

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