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Nigeria’s HIV prevalence has dropped from 4.6 per cent to 4.1 per cent with the number of infected people estimated at 3.1 million, disclosed yesterday in Abuja by the Minister of Health. Launching the 2010 HIV sero-prevalence sentinel survey among pregnant women, Chukwu said the reduction was made possible due to the effectiveness of various intervention strategies.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the minister recalled that the national survey conducted in 1991 put the prevalence at 1.8 per cent, adding that although over the years the prevalence rose to 4.5 per cent in 1995/1996 and 5.8 per cent in 2001, it had been declining since then. According to him, the government instituted three types of HIV and AIDS surveys nationwide including programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, for effectiveness.
These are “sero-prevalence sentinel survey conducted among the ante-natal clinic attendees, HIV and AIDS and reproductive health survey plus, as well as the integrated biological and behavioural surveillance survey. Chukwu stated that the prevalence of new infection among youths aged 15 to 24 had also declined from 6.0 per cent in 2001 to 4.1 per cent in 2010. He explained that the 2010 sentinel survey had confirmed that HIV remained a public health problem of enormous magnitude that should be given priority. “With the national prevalence of 4.1 per cent, the number of people infected is estimated at about 3.1 million. “This means that Nigeria still has the second largest number of people living with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and the highest in West African sub-region. So what has changed!
“The overall national HIV prevalence for 2010 ante-natal clinic sentinel survey is 4.1 per cent with prevalence ranging from 1.0 per cent in Kebbi to 12.7 per cent in Benue. “Currently, about 1.5 million people, including 212,720 children, are still in need of treatment”, the minister remarked. He said that about 400,000 People Living with HIV and AIDS had access to free antiretroviral drugs, adding that the Federal Government was committed to improving HIV and AIDS services and other areas of health. With a larger percentage been young people has these really helped us? And with Benue that had a prevalence 10.9% moving to 12.7% are we really seeing a decrease at that level?
Earlier, the Director-General of National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS, Prof John Idoko, had said there was the need to identify groups that were still fuelling infection so as to channel better preventive strategies. He urged state governments to strive to further reduce the epidemic in their communities. Also speaking, the Country Representative of WHO, Dr David Okello, advised states with low prevalence reporting to work harder for lower figures.
So where should we be going from here? beyond the published figures to the work we are doing, how do we get this treatment to those that need it as well? How can our roles in this as young people be enhanced and used positively to our country's advantange on the issues? We still have so much to do...
Leaders gathered to renew the Maputo Plan of Action on maternal health at the 15th African Union Summit this past Sunday afternoon in Kampala. Created by African ministers and heads of state in 2006, the Maputo Plan is one of the world’s most progressive frameworks for sexual and reproductive health and rights policy. “I commend the intrepid leaders that developed and implemented this innovative plan to transform the lives of Africa’s women,” said Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver. “The Maputo Plan of Action encompasses the innovation, vision, and commitment that African leaders have on sexual, reproductive and maternal health. It is a road map to prosperity and stability for Africa.”
The plan expires this year, but once renewed through 2015, it will outline a critical path for African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It emphasizes strategies for achieving MDGs 4 and 5, which aim to reduce maternal and infant mortality by 2015, but its programmes and targets will be key to achieving all eight development goals.
The theme of this year’s African Union Summit is 'Maternal, Infant, and Child Health and Development in Africa'. As heads of state from nearly every African country convene to address the most important issues facing the continent, renewal of the Maputo Plan will be central to reinforcing Africa’s leadership on maternal health. This comes at a time when millions of women in Africa still face the burdens of poverty, sexual violence, and unplanned pregnancies. The majority of the world’s maternal deaths still occur in that continent.
At a local maternity clinic in one of Bulawayo’s high density suburbs, midwives are at pains to explain to a pregnant 15-year-old girl why she must be tested for HIV before she gives birth.
But the teenager, who lightly beats her chest in an effort to pacify what seems like a painful cough, will not hear of it. She is afraid that her worst fears will be confirmed as she already suspects she could be HIV-positive.
The nurses are worried about the teenager’s health and decide to call in the girl's grandmother who is given the task of explaining to the teenager why she must be tested.
Getting tested is the only way she will be prescribed the medication that will not only treat her cough, but also give her longer life to see her unborn child grow up, the grandmother assures her. Only then does the HIV test go ahead.
Justice Ishaq Bello of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court Tuesday in Abuja called for the reform of abortion law in Nigeria on grounds that laws should be pragmatic enough to reflect current realities.
Bello who spoke at the inauguration of the FCT Chapter of the Network of the Bar, Bench and Police (NBB&P) on Reproductive Health (RH) Tuesday however said that such reform should include "very stringent safeguards".
He explained that the essence of very stringent safeguards was to ensure that such reform would not encourage immorality.
Justice Bello said that abortion law as it is represents an ideal situation of pregnancy on grounds that it believes that all women would be impregnated by their husbands or by men they reached an agreement with for such purpose.
He further explained that pregnancies which were results of rape and incest were not envisaged by the abortion law inherited in 1861 from Britain which the colonial masters had reformed more than three times.
Bello said that the law is "unnecessarily [punitive]" in view of the fact that women who became pregnant as a result of rape and incest and who would prefer to terminate such pregnancies are not covered.
He noted that the restrictive nature of the law had led many women who wanted to terminate pregnancies to their early graves because they easily became victims of quacks who killed them in the process of trying to abort.
Bello observed that the law did not permit qualified medical doctors to terminate a pregnancy, except when it threatened the life of the women.
He said that the law could not stand as it is because of the number of women that died from complications of unsafe abortion which stood at 34,000 every year.
Justice Bello said that there was a compelling situation on ground to reform the law, adding that laws should be pragmatic.
He called on members of NBB&P to come with relevant cases so that Judges would have an opportunity to treat such matters on their merit.
Also speaking, the President of National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo said that issues of reproductive health should be brought to the fore.
He said that members of the NBB&P should no longer be bystanders because of the number of deaths arising from complications of unsafe abortion.
However, he said that solutions should be preventive so that incidents of unsafe abortion could be avoided.
Justice Adejumo said that NBB&P has the opportunity to stop avoidable deaths arising from gaps in RH, adding that "now is the time".
NBB&P was established in 2007 to protect and enforce the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women (S&RHR).
It also encourages the prosecution of criminal violation of such rights and provides a platform for the articulation of ideas and exchange of information for judicial engagement in advocacy on S&RHR.
Finally someone is thinking differently,hmmmmmmmmm........
(This post is from Abdulrahman, a youth activist in Nigeria.)
Just the other day l was listening to a show on the radio, and the presenters were talking about a recent campaign announcement in South Africa to be effected from the 15th of April 2010. It is for the distribution of 2.5billion free condom and promotion of HIV free testing for 15million South Africans. The two presenters had different positions about the issues. One was in support of the campaign and thought it was a good initiative to promote safer sex, while the other thought it can only promote promiscuity among young people and that it wasn’t the best choice. He thought it was safer to promote only abstinence for young people and faithfulness among married partners. He went further to say that promotion and free distribution of condom would only promote promiscuity and immorality in the country (referring to Nigeria).
Recently in Nigeria, the Federal executive council was dissolved by the Acting President some weeks back. A new ministerial nomination list was sent to the parliaments for screening last week and there has been varying reactions from different bodies, organization and individuals. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) was one of those that voiced out their concern about the non-inclusion of a medical professional to lead the Health Ministry in the present nominations.
To my mind and as an advocate, l believe there is a need to properly analyze some of this proclamations especially because the ministry is just a very strategic sector in the bid for the nation’s development and only a professional inclined mind for this sector can move on with most of the strategic goals in order to meet with both the local and international demand on the sector.. As advocate, we would continue to watch the processes towards the inauguration of the new cabinet and hoping that the presidency and all those involved have a plan for a meet up with demand of the health sector by ensuring the right person for the job takes the lead on it. Strategic sectors like health and education must be managed by experienced seasoned professionals who can help move this country forward by observing best practices.
(the following is from Abdulrahman, one of our youth activists in Nigeria)
The international Youth day is here again, a day set aside to commemorate and celebrate young people all over the world. In its ninth year, it’s a special day set aside to address the issues and needs of young people. The theme for this year, “Sustainability, Our Challenges, Our Future”, couldn’t have come at a better in our history. This is the time to take a closer look at the several challenges that has truncated our growth especially when our future as a nation depends on it.
The Nigerian youth have been bewildered with a lot of developmental issues in recent times. Although Youth/adolescents are generally considered physically healthy, they are vulnerable to several unique health problems, such as early child bearing and unwanted pregnancies, with its consequences. Others include higher maternal and child mortality, unsafe abortion; sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS; and sexual exploitation and abuse. According to the 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), more than25% of teenage women in Nigeria have begun child bearing, 30% of rural women aged 15-19 compared with 17% of urban women. A survey conducted in 2006 also showed that young people contributes 55% of the 760,000 unsafe abortion taking place annually in Nigeria.
The lack of accurate information and limited access to adolescent-friendly health services are major contributory factors to the poor reproductive health status of young people in Nigeria. The Nigerian youth lack the basic tools for development and growth. The education and health sector, which is a vital part of the development, is not living up to expectations because funding has been grossly inadequate and has never met up to the United Nations agreement. Just recently, money from the education and health budgetary allocation in the FCT were removed to build roads. This is highly unacceptable! Building roads might be a necessity but it is not justifiable to remove money from a critical sector like that considering the state of these sectors.
My voice alone like one in the wind, easily drowned in the noise,
