Homosexuals and commercial sex workers top the table of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, a survey has revealed. The study known as the Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey came under the auspices of the National AIDs and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme.
According to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, about 3.4 million Nigerians were living with HIV/AIDS in 2012.More current figures are still being awaited.
With a national prevalence of 3.4 per cent, Nigeria is the second country with the highest burden of HIV in the world after Swaziland.
The organisers of the survey used majorly police and military personnel, sex workers, drug users, homosexuals, road transport workers and others at high risk of contracting the HIV/AIDS to conduct the survey.
The exercise, it was gathered, took place in Lagos, Edo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Rivers, Cross Rivers, and Oyo states.
Others used for the survey are Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Taraba, Benue and the Federal Capital Territory.
The National Coordinator, National AIDS/STI Control Programme, Dr. Evelyn Ngige, revealed this at a workshop in Abuja.
According to her, the survey is not only to monitor the HIV/AIDS scourge but also to measure its outcome and impact in the country.
Sex workers, she said , recorded 20 per cent of HIV infection while homosexuals recorded 13 per cent.
She added, “The result of the 2007 and 2010 IBBSS survey showed that the female sex workers have continued to record the highest HIV prevalence (above 20 per cent) followed by men who have sex with men (above 13 per cent). The findings confirmed the high level of HIV infection among members of the high-risk groups as well as the sexual interaction of the groups with the general population.
“With improved understanding of these linkages and findings of other national HIV and AIDS research, such as mode of transmission study, stakeholders have developed appropriate intervention strategies to break the transmission chains and reverse the trends of HIV and AIDS epidemic in the high-risk groups and the general population.”
The NASCP Coordinator, who spoke on the goal of the 2014 IBBSS survey, noted that it was to obtain serological, behavioural and HIV service coverage data on key and vulnerable populations with a view to developing and expanding the HIV prevention and care services.
She hinted that the survey was to generate data to determine their behaviour and access trends in risk behaviour; generate biological data to determine HIV prevalence among the population as well as provide HIV coverage data on prevention programmes for vulnerable populations.
Ngige noted that the survey would also establish a model for surveillance system that would provide information to guide future programme planning and opportunities for appropriate follow up for clinical and social support services.
She said, “IBBSS remains the main survey for monitoring the HIV epidemic among the high-risk groups in Nigeria. The high-risk groups contribute significantly to the HIV epidemic of the population through social network.
“There is need for continuous monitoring of the HIV epidemic as well as the factors driving it among the high-risk groups in Nigeria and this cannot be achieved through HIV surveillance data alone.”
Ngige, who said the IBBSS provided opportunity to assess the impact of HIV prevention and other intervention programmes among the population, noted that it provided data for advocacy, programme planning, monitoring and implementation.
She further noted that the first IBBSS survey conducted in 2007 in six states helped in identifying probable drivers of HIV/AIDS epidemic and previously unrecognised high-risk groups in the country.
The information from the survey, she added, was in use during the revision of the National HIV Prevention Plan.
Ngige stated that the second round of the IBBSS, which was conducted in 2010 in Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Kaduna, Cross Rivers, Benue, Nasarawa, Edo, Anambra and FCT, showed that the sexual behavioural linkages that existed between the high-risk groups and the general population.
Ngige explained that the result of the exercise would provide evidence on the burden of HIV infection and its effects on some groups within the society.
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