Nigeria: Media Tasked on HIV/AIDS Enlightenment. 4/8/10
There has been an increase in cases of mother-to-child transmission of HIV based on wide-spread ignorance
By George Onah
4 August 2010
Port Harcourt — There has been an increase in cases of mother-to-child transmission of HIV based on wide-spread ignorance, consequent upon which the media has been enjoined to spearhead the campaign to stem the upsurge.
A non-governmental organisation, Media Initiative Against HIV/AIDS, Nigeria, which arrived at the conclusion at a one-day workshop in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the increase was also based on misconception about the disease.
In a statement, the group drew attention to the fact that less than two-thirds of pregnant women in Nigeria use hospitals and delivery services but that many rural women patronise local or traditional birth attendants, thereby risking their lives and babies.
According to the group. "HIV/AIDS is a challenge to medicine and mankind. It is an economic, security, cultural, family and religious problem and is a disease without boundaries, which affects all races, status, sex and age.
"It is imperative that people are adequately informed about the disease by the media."
It pointed out that there was high fertility rate in Nigeria but that the worsening prevalence of HIV was a great cause for concern, explaining that there was low male involvement in campaign against the disease.
Challenges
The group drew attention to the social and economic obstacles to identification and diagnosis of HIV, explaining that the challenges were traceable to stigma and discrimination against patients and their relatives, which makes people hide their status.
The statement by Soibi Max-Alalibo and Gogo Iyala, called on the Rivers State government to inaugurate the RIVSACA Agency board and fund it to enable the agency carry out its constitutional role in the fight against the pandemic.