Are you also one of those seeking to know if HIV is still common in Nigeria? Endeavour to read to the end in order to get the latest information about HIV in Nigeria.
In the last 25 years in Nigeria, the mention of HIV sent a shiver down the spine of people especially those who have records of infidelity in marriage or those who for some reason cannot keep the zip up.
As antiretroviral drugs began to pour into the country which helps to suppress the virus and also help to boost the immune system for those living with HIV, and as people began to record tremendous improvement in their health status (thanks to this drug), the question Is Hiv still common in Nigeria began to arise.
Is HIV still common in Nigeria?
In the preceding paragraph, I will answer this question succinctly with detailed statistics to back my claim up.
It all depends on what you mean by Common. In 2020 alone, the Joint United Nations Programmes On Hiv/Aids (UNAIDS) reported that 1.7 million people were still living with HIV in Nigeria alone. With this, it simply means that two-thirds of new HIV infections in West and Central Africa in 2020 occurred in Nigeria.
Find Below a tabular illustration of my claims:
The table below neatly outlines the total number of HIV infections, AIDs-Related Deaths, New HIV infections (all ages), and People receiving ART (all ages). For a proper answer to your question “is HIV still common in Nigeria“, I have compared 4 countries in West Africa including Nigeria.
Table 1:
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From the Above Table which also clearly shows the hiv statistics in Nigeria 2020, we can authoritatively draw a conclusion that HIV is still very common or prevalent in Nigeria. My reasons are:
- Nigeria continues to top the table on the total number of Nw infections with a total of 86,000 new infections in 2020. This is high when compared to the next closest country Ghana with a total number of New infections of 19,000.
- With above number comes HIV-related death cases which pitched Nigeria at 49,000 deaths, whereas Ghana has only 13,000 HIV-related deaths.
- Talking about patients on Antiretroviral drugs, Nigeria is the poorest amongst the examined countries in the table above with a 55% score when Ghana and Benin republic has 60.01% and 70% respectively.
- Additionally from the above table, Nigeria has a total number of 1,600,000 Adults (Age 15 and above) who are living with HIV. Ghana has only 320,000.
- Finally, while Ghana has an estimated number of 350,000 people living with HIV, Nigeria has an estimated 1,700,000 people (Adults and Children) living with HIV.
Total Number Of Sex Workers In the selected West African Countries.
Another way by which we can determine how common HIV is in Nigeria is by comparing the total numbers of sex workers in the selected 4 West African states Nigeria, Ghana, Niger, and the Benin Republic.
This has been represented in the table below….
Table 2.
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The above table as extracted from the UNAIDS data for various regions is also another avenue to ascertain how common HIV is in Nigeria.
The above table compares the number of Sex workers in the selected west African countries. Here, Nigeria maintains the highest number of sex workers of about 874000 as opposed to Ghana which has only about 51900 sex workers.
With this data, one is quick to understand how prevalent HIV will be in Nigeria. This is simply because the higher the number of sex workers in a place, the higher the number of unprotected sexes which will ultimately lead to HIV.
Highest HIV State In Nigeria 2021.
In the following paragraph, I will enumerate the states with the highest recorded cases of HIV.
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List of HIV drugs in Nigeria.
There are a couple of drugs you can take for HIV if you have not started with one. There are also different drugs for HIV depending on:
- Your age
- Pregnancy status
- Reaction to previous prescription.
Below is the table of W.H.O-Approved drugs for Nigerians. These HIV drugs are not limited to the following, as there are still other not covered fully in this post but can be seen on WHO HIV INFO.
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You may simply contact us to get a link to any hospital or HIV NGO close to you.
Also, you can also contact us for free online counselling.
