Benue State University Teaching Hospital , Makurdi. [PHOTO CREDIT: Official Facebook account of BSUTH]“As a lady born with HIV, I have faced lots of stigma issues that made me feel people living with HIV are not humans.
“While I was stepping out, I asked my mum. Do I have HIV? And her response was, yes; you have HIV. She said it carelessly, and that was how I knew about my status,” she said“Once people know you are positive to the virus, the stigma comes in consciously or unconsciously. Globally, in 2017, about 21.7 million people living with HIV were accessing antiretroviral therapy, an increase of 2.3 million since 2016 and up from 8 million in 2010.In 2017, 940 000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide, compared to 1.4 million in 2010 and 1.9 million in 2004.According to the Executive Secretary of Civil Society for HIV/AIDs in Nigeria , Walter Ugwocha, the fear of stigma is one of the factors holding people back from getting tested.
According to UNAIDS, the key populations most affected by HIV/AIDS in Nigeria are sex workers, gay men and people who inject drugs. The Act frowns against the ill-treatment of PLHIV in health facilities, religious places, schools, job denial, denial of access to communal places amongst others. “We lost someone about four weeks ago in Wuse General Hospital because of the person’s status; it was becoming difficult for the person to be given the appropriate treatment. The case became complicated, and she died.
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