Youth needs neglected in HIV response

The country director who was speaking during review of a report on the HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities, discrimination and service accessibility of Nigeria’s youths recently in Abuja pointed out that these categories of persons were the most affected by the epidemic and neglecting their needs would spell doom for the country’s goal to manage HIV/AIDS.Ahonsi noted that […]

The country director who was speaking during review of a report on the HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities, discrimination and service accessibility of Nigeria’s youths recently in Abuja pointed out that these categories of persons were the most affected by the epidemic and neglecting their needs would spell doom for the country’s goal to manage HIV/AIDS.
Ahonsi noted that the report reveals that many youths do not access services at the health facilities because they are discriminated against by the health personnel’s at those facilities.
His words, “The research shows that young people do not access services because the services discriminate against them, and this is double jeopardy. Once you are young and sexually active, you would be discriminated against even to the level of your household, your father will say you are having sex, of course you are having sex, they will call a family meeting on you, so how do you go beyond that”.
According to him this attitude by health personnel is also putting the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission in serious jeopardy because lots of youths who are refused services are giving birth.
“If you look at the PMTCT prevalence there is a high proportion of births  that are happening within this age range, so if we are looking at 15-24 and we know in this country, in many parts of the country even by 15- 17, women are already giving birth to children, and you have PMTCT services that does not target young people, how can you prevent mother to child transmission”.
Earlier the deputy director operations research of the population council, Dr George Eluwa making a presentation of the study findings observed that the policy is silent on youths living with HIV/AIDS, early marriages and harmful cultural practices.
Eluwa said that if the country is committed to achieving zero tolerance to new infections, deaths and the rest then policies have to be youth friendly taking into consideration their needs as it relates to HIV/AIDS.