Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
Segun Adeyemi, PANA Correspondent

The report released by the federal government Thursday, ahead of the December 1 World AIDS Day, showed that the national prevalence rate rose from 5.4 percent, when the last survey was conducted in 1999, to 5.8 percent in 2001, among the adult population between the ages of 15 and 49 years.

"Our average national HIV prevalence has continued to show a steady and gradual increase in trend," Minister of State for Health, Amina Ndalolo, said in Abuja.

"From 1.8 percent in 1991, this figure has risen to 3.8 percent in 1993, 4.5 percent in 1995, 5.4 percent in 1999 and now to 5.8 percent in 2001," she said.

Listing the striking features of the survey, conducted by the government and its development partners, Ndalolo said the rural populations were "exhibiting HIV trends that are not different from our highly cosmopolitan urban areas".

She said the most alarming problem was the emergence of a fast-track epidemic in the nation's capital city, Abuja and its environs.

"From a very low level of infection early in the epidemic, today Abuja is recording a very high prevalence of 10.2 percent, which is unacceptable for our Federal Capital Territory. It is our collective responsibility to fight back this trend," she said.

Another worrisome revelation is the fact that the surveys returned results of HIV prevalence above the national average, with a majority of them above 10 percent, in more than 30 out of the 85 locations studied in the survey.

A breakdown of the variation in median HIV prevalence by zones shows that the highest rate of 7.7 percent in the South-South, while the lowest rate of 3.3 percent was in the North-West.

The South-East recorded 5.8 percent, South-West four percent, North-East 5.4 percent and North-Central, 6.7 percent.

But the Minister said it was not all bad news. "Some of the sites that received considerable attention due to their initial high prevalence rates are now beginning to show evidence of slowing down in the pace of the epidemic," she said, citing Central Benue and Kaduna States as examples.

Given the significance of the report, Ndalolo said the government had designed a "comprehensive dissemination plan to reach all corners of the country and mobilise the nation towards more vigorous action".

"I have also directed the AIDS Control Unit to make a detailed presentation on the survey results for the benefit of our audience," she said.

The launching of the report is one of the activities lined up by the government to observe the AIDS Day, whose theme is: "I care, do you?"

Other activities include health-based activities expected to address the issues of care for people living with HIV/AIDS, formal launching of the STI (sexually transmitted infections) Syndromic Management, and a series of interactive phone-in programmes on radio and television.

There will also be distribution of AIDS educational materials, and hospital visits to people living with AIDS by key government officials.
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