HIV infection is a big deal – for individuals, family and nations. Uganda is one nation that had been badly hit by the epidemic. Currently, adolescents and young persons’ constitute 75% of Uganda’s population. You can imagine the implication of that for the nation’s growth and development.
Nigeria has the second highest burden of people living with HIV – over 3 million Nigerians live with the virus. In effect, over 3 million Nigerians need to have regular access to antiretroviral therapy in line with the current national guideline on use of antiretroviral for HIV treatment and prevention. This is a huge financial burden for any nation least of all a developing nation like Nigeria that has so ineffectively managed its meagre resources. While the long term benefit of such a huge investment cannot be contested, the immediate impact of this expenditure is significant.
One would only therefore assume that Nigeria would invest largely in HIV prevention research efforts so as to identify ways, and facilitate prompt access of its citizens to HIV prevention tool. A cursory look at the map below shows that West Africa as a whole and Nigeria specifically is not hosting ANY HIV prevention clinical trials.
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The implication is huge especially in the field of HIV vaccine research. Ongoing HIV vaccine research are not testing candidate products for the circulating HIV strains in West Africa and Nigeria. While it is believed that any developed HIV vaccine may be non-strain specific, there is no doubt that the type of HIV strain may affect the effectiveness of any developed vaccine.
That Nigeria may not be left behind in the ongoing global HIV prevention research efforts, we as citizens need to hold our government accountable. We need to ask questions. We need to demand for a change in the way HIV prevention research is being pursued by the country.
If Nigeria continues to lag behind in the global HIV prevention research efforts, we may likely – sooner than later – become the country with the highest HIV burden in the world. This is a statistics no Nigeria is interested in hearing.
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