Aids Hiv And Aids - 1144 Words

HIV/AIDS IN NIGERIA Introduction The first case of HIV was reported in 1981 and since then, it has spread rapidly turning into a pandemic (WHO 2014). Thirty-five million people currently live with HIV worldwide and 2.1 million deaths were recorded in 2013 (WHO 2014). HIV in the WHO African region is the highest in the world as the continent bears 70% of the disease burden (WHO AFRO 2013). In 2013, 24 million people in Africa were reported to be living with HIV. One of the high burden countries in this region is Nigeria and it ranks as the second highest after South Africa (WHO AFRO 2013). Despite the efforts on the international and local fronts to curb this epidemic, the continuous rise in new cases has shown that more needs to be done.†¦show more content†¦Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is the terminal stage of the HIV infection however with essential treatment not every infected individual gets to this stage. HIV is transmitted through transfusion of infected blood, sexual intercourse, sharing contam inated needles, during childbirth from mother to child and during breastfeeding (WHO 2014). Nigeria has an estimated population of 174 million people and 3.7% of this population are living with HIV/AIDS. Two hundred and ten thousand people died as a result of HIV/AIDS in 2011 (UNAID 2012). The first case of HIV in Nigeria was reported in 1986 and since then several programmes have been planned and implemented (NACA 2014). Nevertheless we are nowhere near eliminating the emergence of incidence cases considering the fact that there is no available cure for the disease (WHO AFRO 2013). Despite this, a reduction in prevalence was observed from 5.8% in 2001 to 4.1 % in 2010 and it highlights that it is possible to reduce prevalence by preventing the continuous transmission of the disease (NACA 2014). Therefore, there is need to restructure the existing policies and adopt new approaches to tackling this burdensome public health concern in Nigeria. Knowledge and awareness of HIV among the Nigerian population is very high based on the report of Lammers et al. (2013) where it was reported that 89.5% of Nigerians are aware of HIV. However, only 5.3% of this