‘Less Than 1% Of Nigerians Know Their HIV Status’

By Onche Odeh
Science Reporter, Lagos

March 27, 2006

A recent survey has revealed that less than one percent of the entire population of Nigeria know whether they have the Human immune deficiency Virus (HIV) or not. 

Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria, GHAIN, in a 2005 report noted that less than 13 million out of the 130 million Nigerians know their HIV status.

The report specifically mentions young people between ages 15 – 25 as mostly lacking in knowledge about their HIV status.

Programme Officer in charge of Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) at GHAIN, Simon Cartier, noted that the media is partly to blame for this.

“While the media has contributed tremendously to letting people know about HIV and AIDS, it has also, by the kind of messages it has dished out contributed in scaring people, especially the youths, away from voluntarily going out to know their HIV status,” he said.

He also stated that the media should be blamed for the  stigmatisation and discrimination of HIV/AIDS victims. According to himsuch clichés as, “AIDS Kills”, used by the media portrays HIV / AIDS as a death sentence.

Consequently, Internews Nigeria Local Voices Project has invited eight talk show hosts/producers to a five-day (March 27 to April 1) training workshop on Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), with emphasis on youth.  The aim of the workshop is to ensure that the media provides their audience, particularly young people with accurate and relevant information.

“Most of the time, the media coins messages meant for the youths without necessarily involving them in the process, this is not good and the youth response so far has been a direct consequence of that,” Cartier said.

The trainees will visit the VCT centre at the Specialist Hospital Gwagwalada in Abuja, and the Youths Friendly Centre at the University of Abuja, where they would have the opportunity to speak with young people about their reaction to Voluntary Counselling and Testing issues. They will also receive training on research, script writing, interviewing skills, and other facets of talk show production and presentation.

Internews Nigeria Local Voices Project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID through the President Bush’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR.