allAfrica
Jacinta Nwachukwu and Franca Ofili
Original Article: bit.ly/19GFNHX
Nigeria, with an estimated population of 160 million, ranks second to South Africa in the factsheet on countries with people living with HIV and AIDS worldwide, representing nine percent of the global burden of the disease.
According to a recent report of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nigeria has put in place a sentinel surveillance system among pregnant women in the 15 to 49 age bracket, attending antenatal care, to track HIV prevalence since 1991.
The Demographic and Health Survey 2013 report says that new HIV infections in the country are fuelled by low perceptions of personal risk, multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships, intense transactional and intra-generational sex.
Also, ineffective and inefficient treatment services for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), inadequate access to health care services as well as poor quality of health care services are some of the factors responsible for the increase in new infections.
As part of efforts to increase public awareness of HIV issues, the United Nations (UN) designated Dec. 1 as the World AIDS Day to raise public awareness across the world about the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS.
Full text of article available at link below: bit.ly/19GFNHX
