Nigeria's HIV crisis: 1.8 million living with HIV, 4th highest globally. Alarming rates in Akwa Ibom, Benue, Rivers, Taraba & Anambra. Urgent action needed to combat this public health threat
Background: HIV is an acquired defect of the cellular immunity associated with the infection by the human immunodeficiency virus. The disease has reached pandemic proportion and has been considered a public health concern.
History: The first cases of AIDS were reported in May 1981 in the United States of America by Dr. Michael Gottlieb of the Medical School of Los Angeles, United States. The first victims were five homosexual men who were suffering from unusual pneumonia called Pneumocystis Carinii pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma. The causative organisms were first isolated and named Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type III (HTLV-III) in the US and Lymphadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV) in France. The first case of HIV and AIDS in Nigeria was identified in 1985 and reported at an international conference in 1986.
Current situation: Nigeria is the most populous African country and the seventh most populous in the world with an estimated population of approximately 206,139.589 people. Nigeria ranks 4th in global HIV burden with approximately 1.8 million (estimated) persons living with HIV as of 2019. The current national prevalence of HIV in Nigeria is 1.4% and stratification based on states showed the highest prevalence in Akwa Ibom (5.6%), Benue (4.9%), Rivers (3.8%), Taraba (2.7%) and Anambra (2.7%) and the least prevalence in Jigawa (0.3%) and Katsina (0.3%).
Challenges: The growth of scientific literature in HIV/AIDS-related research in Nigeria was found to be high and increasing. However, the hotspot analysis still shows more unexplored grey areas in future.
Nigeria is still one of the countries with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. Despite the declining prevalence/low prevalence, HIV/AIDS in Nigeria remains a public health concern.
