Five States top list of HIV/AIDS infections in Nigeria

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has said that five States which include Akwa Ibom, Benue, Taraba, Anambra, Abia, have the highest burden of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Nigeria.
NACA report also showed that no fewer than 560,000 persons living with the virus are not on treatment. This comes as Nigeria joins the rest of the international commuity to mark the World’s AIDS Day (WAD).

Others include: Cross River, Edo, Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Plateau, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Ogun, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, Kaduna, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ebonyi, Kogi, Kwara, Ekiti, Kebbi, Kano, Niger, Bauchi, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara, Jigawa and Katsina with the lowest burden and least affected.

According to NACA’s 2020 Quarterly FACTSHEET VOL 1, 13 of every 1000 persons are likely to test positive for HIV, adding that out of estimated 1.8 million Nigerians living with HIV, only 1.24 million are currently on treatment.

The report stated that Nigeria needs to invest $2.4 billion to identify and treat additional 540,000 Persons Living With HIV (PLWH) to reach the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) target for epidemic control in the next three years.

The report noted that the estimated number of tests needed to identify these additional persons with HIV is 50 million persons.

The implication that 560,000 persons with HIV in Nigeria are not on treatment is dire. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were an estimated 38 million people living with HIV at the end of 2019 and due to gaps in HIV services, 690,000 people died from HIV-related causes in 2019 and 1.7 million people were newly infected.

The report noted that COVID-19 has affected provision of HIV services and caused 45.5 per cent drop in viral load testing, clinical activities and in Anti Retroviral (ARV) drug refill rate.

It also noted that six months interruption in HIV treatment due to lockdown might lead to 900,000 deaths as opposed to 430,000 deaths in Sub Saharan Africa.

Among adults age 15-64 years, HIV prevalence varied by zone across Nigeria, with the highest prevalence in South South Zone (3.1 per cent) and the lowest prevalence in North West Zone (0.6 per cent).

Also, latest figures from UNAIDS showed more than 12 million people are still waiting to get on HIV because they could not access essential services.