World AIDs Day: Positive persons speak on challenges, expectations

Mairo tested positive to HIV after her husband died of AIDS. She wept openly for a whole week after she was diagnosed with the disease  and everyone in her neighbourhood in Borno State got to know about her status. That was the beginning of her travails. According to her, “People stopped buying food from my […]

Mairo tested positive to HIV after her husband died of AIDS. She wept openly for a whole week after she was diagnosed with the disease  and everyone in her neighbourhood in Borno State got to know about her status. That was the beginning of her travails.
According to her, “People stopped buying food from my restaurant and nobody wants to come near me. I find it difficult now to feed my two children because everyone has deserted me,” she said.
Mairo could not give her real names for fear of more stigmatization as it is still very high in Borno State where she lives. She said the stigmatization of people living with the  disease in the state is so much that the victims shy away from forming associations or making public comments.
 In addition she said though they are getting drugs from designated centers, the state government is not supporting them in any way.
At the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Maiduguri, Daily Trust Health Desk finds the story was the same. A 23 year old client said she did not tell anyone in the camp that she is positive because there is no provision for victims welfare or medication. About  3.2 million Nigerians are living with HIV/AIDs, and 58% of them are women. With the prevalence rate of 3.2%, Nigeria has the second largest burden of HIV in the world-second to South Africa.
 As at the end of 2014, Nigeria had placed over 747,382 people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) according to a fact sheet by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).
People living with HIV/AIDs in Nigeria are faced with diverse challenges across the six geopolitical zones of the country, added with some peculiar challenges to states. As Nigeria commemorates the World AIDS Day with the rest of the world, today, People living with HIV/AIDs in the country in this report  spoke about these challenges and proffered the way forward.
Speaking on the problems of handling HIV cases in Borno state, Head of Clinical Services of the Specialists Hospital, Maiduguri, Dr Ojewale said most of the people that are required  to do HIV test do not go for the test and in most cases do not even return to the hospital because they feel guilty even before they are confirmed positive.
He said those that are confirmed positive hardly wait to be counseled, as they feel traumatized and are worried on how the society will see them.
The Katsina State Chairman of  the Network of People Living With HIV/AIDs in Nigeria (NEPWAN) Shehu Ibrahim said their most teething challenge is  stigmatisation and contact tracking.
According to him, when people are diagnosed with the disease many of them fail to keep up with subsequent appointments for reviews and medications noting that , “We go after them but atimes we find out that they are married off to people who are negative”.
He said other challenges include being asked to pay fees on some tests that their members can’t afford, as well as scarcity of some chemicals used for laboratory analysis.
While stating that the state assembly is working on a law to address discrimination and stigma, he said in Katsina metropolis for instance sixty new cases are reported monthly, and they need finance to effectively track, and sensitize them in order to curtail spread and place them in a support group.
People living with HIV/AIDs in Enugu complained of not getting enough support from government and the lack of facilities for the members of the network  to work.
“We don’t have a permanent office. We don’t have vehicles to move into the rural areas to create awareness about the ailment. We can’t reach the many orphans and vulnerable children who need help. We need capacity building of members by training them to assist people. We need money to get to the hinterland and educate people; we have about forty registered support groups spread across all the nooks and crannies of Enugu state,” Chairman of the network, Mr. Christopher Malu said.
The Association of Women Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Enugu State Chapter on their part said most of the treatment and support care programmes they are enjoying are donor-driven, noting that most of the donor agencies “are winding up now”.
State chairperson of the group, Mrs. Bene Onah said: “What happens to us when the donors have left? How are we going to cope when all these donors are no more in the country and the government has not even indicated interest in taking over from them?
“For example, some of the facilities here in Enugu, you go there and you  pay for some of the services provided. Something like CD4 test and other things; you have to pay for them. But at the initial stage it was free.” 
In Benue State, president of the network, Ali Baba Emmanuel appealed to the state government to provide CD4 count machines in each of the three senatorial district of the state.
He said the provision of the machines, vehicles and financial support would enable the over 160 support groups of those living positively across the 23 local government areas of the state have easy access to amenities for the improvement of their health.
He expressed concern that the insufficient services at the grassroots was a major challenge facing those living positively outside the state capital of Makurdi as they find it difficult to access anti- retroviral drugs, and in some cases they are even asked to pay certain amount of money for the drugs which they hardly could afford.
Finance officer of the organisation, Abughdyer Aondoaukura said government should assist them in setting up a skill acquisition centres for their member. He also stressed that there is  need for government to step up counterpart funding to enable donor agencies who are gradually withdrawing their services return to the state.
The Kwara State chapter of ‎the people living with HIV/AIDS lamented over the high rate of unemployment and neglect among its members.
The coordinator, Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in the state, Mr. Emma Oroseniwo Aderera‎, said they have continued to face stigmatisation ‎especially in getting employed and their female members are the worst hit because many of them have been sent parking from their matrimonial homes without any job.
“In the attempt to cater for themselves and their children, they spread the virus to other people and for ‎the men, we are managing but it is not easy living freely and harnessing opportunity like every other person in the country,” Aderera said.
He urged government to look for a way of getting them employed and provide them with an office accommodation.
Monisola Ajiboye, is a person living with HIV/AIDs in Lagos State and also runs a support group for HIV/AIDs victims with Citadel of Hope. She said persons with the disease in the state are always sick because they cannot access healthcare.
She said in most government hospitals, certain fees have been introduced to access treatments.
She said stigmatization and discrimination  is still in there despite the Lagos State law on stigmatization.
National Coordinator of Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPHWAN), Victor Omoshehin complained of the user fee and unnecessary charges being introduced in some health facilities in the country saying it is unjustifiable and will drive the epidemic.
On way forward, he said the federal government should take full control and ownership of HIV/AIDs treatment and care in the country, HIV/AIDs treatment should be included in the National health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the National Health Act  should be implemented to the later, and all fees for HIV/AIDs treatment should be eliminated.