THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer

THE AFRICA BAZAAR MAGAZINE

March 14, 2019

The Nigeria government released new report Thursday that showed the country’s efforts to stymie the spread of HIV/AIDS disease among its population have been very successful.

The report, Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey, which directly measured HIV prevalence and viral load suppression is one of the largest population-based HIV/AIDS household surveys ever conducted in the world and will allow the country to focus its efforts on providing treatments and services to the areas and people that need it the most. 

The report data shows the number of people living with the disease is in the minority. However, there is a huge gap in HIV prevalence between men and women, with the disease more widespread among women than men. It was greatest among younger adults, with women age 20-24 years at 1.3 percent, having more than three times the rate of males in the same age group at 0.4 percent. HIV rate was highest among females age 35-39 years at 3.3 percent and among males age 50-54 years at 2.3 percent.

The NAIIS also showed that the prevalence of viral load suppression, a widely used measure of effective HIV treatment in a population, among all people living with HIV age 15-64 years in Nigeria was 44.5 percent, 46.2 percent among females and 40.9 percent among males. The disparity in VLS between females and males was greatest among those age 25-34 years, with females age 25-34 years is 40.0 percent, being twice as likely to have VLS compared to males in the same age group at 20.3 percent.

The report, based on data collected from more than 250,000 respondents in nearly 100,000 households, was conducted by the Federal Ministry of Health Nigeria, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS. It was sponsored by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and with technical assistance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and implemented by the NAIIS Consortium, led by the University of Maryland School of Medicine with supervision from the NAIIS Technical Committee.