A New Document in the Battle against HIV/AIDS

A new book has just been added to the growing corpus of materials focusing on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Written by Florence Uchendu, HIV, All You Must Know, documents a wide sweep of information that touches on all aspects of the subject in one breath. STEPHEN UBIMAGO engages with the thoughts of the author in this piece.

Okon Edem (real names withheld) is from Akwa Ibom State. Only the previous day, his girl friend of nine months, who, for some time, had been down with a strange ailment, broke the mind searing news of her having tested positive to the dreaded Human Immuno deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

Hardly did he imagine a day would come when he would have to subject himself to Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) were it not that doctors had advised his girl friend to quickly bring forward the man in her life for the test. Swiftly, though in dooms-day garb, he had headed for the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, were he underwent the test.

Edem was among hundreds of Nigerians whose number, officials of the Institute said, had surged in recent times, coming forward for VCT at the centre, a development said to be a major step towards the curtailment of the spread of the dreaded disease.

As their counselor, a burly lady in her early thirties, reeled off nuggets of prime information about HIV/AIDS, which, as she said, was meant a permanent take-home kit to assist them in making informed choices regarding their sex lives in the future, just as well as immediately preparing their minds for the near unpredictability of outcomes of the test, it was easy to read how the dense feeling of judgment day had seized the air in the counseling room. “About 10, 000 people are currently undergoing Anti-Retro Viral (ARV) therapy in this institute alone,” the counselor announced to her audience.

The counseling session was done with. It was quickly followed by the drawing of blood samples by the lab personnel who thereafter set about their own part of the job of testing for the virus. Moments passed after these series of events, then, “Okon Edem,” a voice rang through from across one of the rooms.

It belonged to an elderly woman whose Armageddon duty was to announce and hand over the test result to each participant in the VCT session. Edem had tensely been waiting for his turn as many other names had earlier been called before his. Gravely, he went in to meet her.

“If you are positive, will you be sure you take your drugs always?” Edem heard the woman ask him matter-of-factly. “Yes,” he slurred tremulously. “Did I hear her say ‘positive’?” Edem pondered loudly without so much as uttered a word. Apparently, his heart already was racing into his mouth.

“Make sure you are more careful. Come back here in six months for confirmation,” the woman cut through Edem’s thoughts while handing him a sky-blue light piece of paper bearing the test result boldly stamped “Negative.”

Edem dashed out of the woman’s office unable to contain his joy. He suppressed a scream.         

“The truth is, until now, this whole thing about AIDS only fleetingly crossed my mind,” he spoke to our correspondent albeit in broken English with the excitement of a wild bird just escaped its cage.

“I have known my girl friend for almost a year. We are from the same state. I can count the number of times we had protected sex on my finger tips. Ah! My God!”

In her book, HIV, All You Must Know, Florence Uchendu reports, “60 per cent of the people living with HIV/AIDS were below the age 25 and that 54 per cent are women.” She says women were at higher risk of being infected with the disease for the following reasons: “The virus survives better in the vagina and anus than on the surface of the penis; the acidic and moist environment of the vagina also gives a longer life span to the virus; men do not tell their wives that they have HIV infection before having sex with them; and once he demands it, she is not expected to say no; most women are not economically empowered, and so when they are pushed to the wall and do not know what to do next, many decide to sell their bodies to get what they do not have,” among others.

She adds, younger women have a higher risk of being infected because their genital track is not fully developed; they are highly susceptible to infection with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) during intercourse and may also, more likely experience tears during sexual intercourse.

Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country has in the past few years consistently dropped to the current 4 per cent level, due largely to greater access to information by many Nigerians, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, minister of health, is quoted as saying not long ago that “what we have on our hand is an emergency situation.”

Uchendu says this is because “AIDS reduces the workforce, creates large numbers of orphans, worsens poverty and gender inequality, and puts tremendous pressure on health and social services.”

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 6,000 youths a day become infected with HIV and AIDS. This has implication for the labour force of any country. Of the 3 million infected Nigerians, the majority of them fall within the productive age, 15 and 49 years. And this is the workforce category that constitutes the key drivers of the nation’s economy.

She hints that hitherto this untoward trend has largely been driven by what she dubbed, ‘Acute Information Deficiency Syndrome.’ The injection of immense dose of information into the public space, she says, is therefore a veritable weapon for dealing deft blow on the dreaded disease, which, according to her, was why she wrote the book.

She agrees that aside from information-dearth, poverty forms a major vehicle for accelerating the pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa estimated as harbouring 76 per cent of the 2.4vmillion people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the world.

More often than not, poverty constitutes a reason why some parents could give up their children for prostitution or why many young women take on jobs as commercial sex workers. Large numbers of sex workers have been documented as not only forming a large part of PLWHA, but that dalliances with them, according to experts, form a major window in the spread of the disease.

Poverty contributes to why many young people of marriageable age are not married, which in turn is contributory to why many patronize hawkers of sex, and even experiment with multiple sex partners.

Uchendu also notes that reluctance on the part of many adults to go for VCT, is a major contributor to the spread of HIV/AIDS in the same way that lack of prompt, constant and comprehensive check up on one’s health, have been factored as accounting for the growing trend of heart and renal failure in the country. The earlier one knows one’s status the better the ability of managing any emergent health condition and prolonging one’s life, she says. Fear of the unknown, experts admit, is one of the reasons why many have been reluctant to go for VCT.

The phenomenon of stigamatisation of PLWHAs, also has an indirect connection with the spread of the disease. It is at the bottom of why many prevaricate with the idea of going for VCT. It makes PLWHAs not to come out of the closet, thereby giving a shade for the growth of the pandemic.

A brilliant, informative and comprehensive read, Uchendu’s HIV, All You Must Know harps overwhelmingly on the merit of prevention as against treatment in the combat of HIV/AIDS. It traces the origin of the disease to how it is spread, prevention and treatment; and of course much more.

Since the disease has yet to have any known cure, abstinence, faithfulness to one partner, VCT, care for PLWHAs and the discontinuation of acts of stigmatization, among others, Uchendu says, form the best bet in the battle against the dreaded disease.