By Murtada O. Babatunde -- Kaduna, Nigeria
You can have HIV/AIDS and live forever…..researcher
Human Immunodeficiency Virus popularly known as HIV is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
The deadly disease can be contacted through any of the following;
Coming in contact with HIV-infected blood (for example sharing needles for drugs), through sexual contact with people who are already infected with HIV. During sex, HIV can be transmitted through the vagina, vulva, penis, rectum, or mouth and HIV-positive mothers can also pass virus to their children during pregnancy, delivery, or through breast milk.
During an interview with Dr. Rabi’u Mohammed of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) he said HIV weakens your immune system. HIV becomes AIDS when your immune system can’t keep fighting illness and start getting diseases called Opportunistic infections.
In a research conducted, we found out that the opportunistic infections take advantage of your weakened immune system and that most doctors prescribe drugs to help prevent the opportunistic infections when your CD4 count drops below 200 (A CD4 count is a measure of your T-cells). T-cells are a kind of white blood cells that fights infections as part of your immune system.
Some of the diseases that may develop because your immune system is too weak are: MAC (Mycobacterium Avium Complex), Toxo (Toxoplasmosis), Crypto (Cryptococcus) and PCP (Pneumocystitis Carinii Pneumonia).
Treatment for HIV can slow the virus and delay the onset of AIDS. There is no set time for HIV to become AIDS. Some people get AIDS-related illnesses within a few years. About half of all people with HIV develop AIDS within 10 years if they’re not treated.
The dreaded HIV/AIDS could be lived with as long as one lives on earth without many problems. This is the view of a researcher and Kaduna based politician, Aisha Garba Magaji. Aisha’s opinion is based on her research findings that shows that poor people are more endangered by HIV/AIDS affliction than the rich.
The rich with the financial wherewithal to
take good care of themselves choose their sex partners and afford good blood
transfusions at reputable hospital around the globe, are far less at danger of
contacting the disease than the poor.
They can as well afford the drugs to effectively manage the disease even after contacting it, thereby living longer. In another opinion the younger ones are said to be more prone to contacting HIV than the older people .The young people believe life must be lived to the fullest and therefore careless about choosing sex partners or having unprotected sex, some ways by which HIV infection can be avoided. But the older ones who have tasted life and wouldn’t want an early death are more careful not to indulge in carefree sex life.
Dr. Suleiman Zibiri, the Medical Officer at Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) medical center, said one can have HIV without any symptom manifestation. “Ordinarily, the symptoms, such as feeling tired all the time, frequent fevers, continous diarrhea, swollen glands in the neck ,armpits or groin, rashes, sweating a lot at night and fast loss of weight without dieting. In some cases these symptoms manifests only when it gets to the AIDS stage”. Also looking at it from the spiritual angle Dr. Zibiri is of the view that the disease is curable.”
Even though humanly for now, there has been no cure found for HIV/AIDS, there is no disease that doesn’t have a cure with God” he opined.
As a medical practitioner he agrees HIV/AIDS exists, despite that some believe that it came to being through “a scientific research that went out of control’.
The Nigerian government is trying its possible best in the fight against the pandemic HIV/AIDS. According to a news report posted on a website http://allafrica.com/stories/ by Daily Trust on 21st October 2005.The Nigeria minister of health, Prof .Eyitayo Lambo said the Nigerian government is to open an Anti-Retroviral (ARV ) treatment center in Kogi State within the next six months. He said this is to provide treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The minister revealed that it cost N40, 000($280) annually for one PLWHA (People Living With HIV/AIDS) to access ARV treatment, but the government subsidizes the cost of the treatment by 75%. Thus those afflicted with the disease pay as low as N1000 ($7) monthly to access the drugs. Prof. Lambo said the measure is to check the spread of the epidemic as well as ensure positive living of PLWHAs.
In another vain, the Federal Government of Nigeria has released N90million ($680,000) ahead of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, to be held in the capital Abuja in December this year .A lawmaker and Chairman of the House of Representatives committee on HIV/AIDS, Dr .Esio Udoh has revealed. He said the government is ready to “fight the scourge to a standstill” but also stressed the need for a multisectoral approach in “close collaboration with partnering agencies”
With all these efforts of the government in terms of advocacy, public enlightenment and drug provision, it seems the people are not taking HIV/AIDS with the seriousness it deserves. According to Aisha Sule, a high school graduate who want to be a medical doctor, “people are still taking HIV/AIDS with levity by the way they indulge in carefree sex life and sharing of unsterilized instrument.
People still share barbing and manicure instruments not caring whether they are sterilized or not”. “And this can not be the attitude of people who guide against HIV/AIDS.” She concluded. Aisha’s argument is supported in a new dimension by a news item posted to the web by the UN Integrated Regional Information Network on October 19th 2005. In the said news, it was reported that efforts to motivate people in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, to be tested for HIV/AIDS has been an uphill battle, despite widespread campaigns.
In Ifako-Ijaye, a heavily populated suburb, the local voluntary testing and couselling(VCT) centre, the response has been nowhere near what the officials implementing the ‘Know Your HIV Status’ project were hoping for. Wunmi Sina-Falana, project team coordinator of the Centre for Health Education and Development Communication (CHEDCOM) said “despite all the strategies we have adopted, the number of people that have come forward for testing so far is disappointingly low”. CHEDCOM is a Lagos based NGO and it’s running the campaign in the Lagos and Ogun states of southwest Nigeria, with support from the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA).
Though some are of the view that the low turn out is brought about by fear than by carelessness. But the springing up of mushroom barbing salons, body care, manicure and pedicure centers, where sterilization of instruments is not taken with importance, at every nook and corner in the country is a pointer that people still care less about contacting HIV/AIDS.
In an answer to a question on how the spread of HIV/AIDS could be minimized, Dr. Fatima Bakare said the rapid spread of the disease in Nigeria is as a result of stigmatization and discrimination against people who have tested positive. In her words “discriminating against people who are infected is forcing the epidemic under the carpet, where it does no one any good.
It continues to spread. But if we are able to control stigmatization, discrimination and rejection, more people will have the courage to come out and test. By this it will be easy to control the disease a little better” Even if you decide to quarantine those with known cases, what about the millions living free in the society, and do not know they are positive? “They will continue spreading it” Dr. Fatima a medical officer at Usman Dantsoho Memorial Hospital, Tudun Wada, Kaduna concluded.
For Michael Ajagbe an engineer, poverty, illiteracy and culture are all contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS. To him most sex workers are people who are trying to make ends meet, not caring in what way or what repercussion it will bring to them and the society.
The highest percentage of Nigerians can not afford two square meals not talking of having personal barbing instruments and are thus force to make do with what is “affordable and available to them”. Culture in a part of the country that is known for its high HIV/AIDS positive population allows a man to give his wife as a present to a visiting friend, not caring if such friend is having HIV/AIDS or not. “With this type of culture, how do you curb the spread of the disease?” Michael asked. Circumcision is also another culture that helps in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Most instruments used in circumcision are never sterilized and are used for as many people as are available.
In all arms of the government, different organizations are formed to enlighten people on the spread of the disease. Such organizations include; State Action Committee on AIDS (SACA) and National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA). There are also Non-governmental organizations such as AIDS Alliance in Nigeria that support people living with HIV.
Recently a program was aired on the National Television that help infected persons talk about their lives, how they got infected and so on. This program is called “Moments Like This” and when you have comments you can always send to their mail box which is “info@ patanigeria.org.”
Watch out “AIDS is REAL”…………. Nigeria Campaign against AIDS.