Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - November 8, 2005

With more than 3.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, Nigeria ranks third in the world after India and South Africa. Every day, 1,000 Nigerians contract HIV and another 800 die of AIDS and related diseases, many of them children, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

"The problem is very deep in Nigeria, it has a huge implication for the whole continent," said Tegegnework Gettu, U.N. resident coordinator in Africa's most populous country.

Drawing a comparison with southern African countries like Botswana and Malawi, which have much higher infection rates but much smaller populations, Gettu said Nigeria had to act "before it (HIV/AIDS prevalence) reaches a catastrophic level".

The population of Nigeria is estimated at 140 million and the fertility rate is 5.7 children per woman. With a dearth of anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, an increasing number of children are becoming infected by their mothers at birth.

"With the current population growth rate, the potential devastation to this country without effective action will be enormous. There are already 1.8 million children orphaned by AIDS in Nigeria," said Ayalew Abai, head of UNICEF in Nigeria.

He was speaking at the local launch of a global UNICEF campaign to focus attention and resources on children affected by the pandemic. Objectives include reducing mother-to-baby transmission and increasing the supply of anti-retroviral drugs to children.

As things stand, only 40,000 Nigerians are receiving anti-retroviral drugs and less than 1 percent of HIV positive pregnant women are getting the drugs, UNICEF said.

The majority of children born HIV positive die before their fifth birthday, mostly from associated infections.

Gettu said there was significant funding available for HIV/AIDS projects in Nigeria, but too often aid got tied up in bureaucracy or used ineffectively.

"We really need to get our act together. We should admit that we have not done a good job of tackling HIV/AIDS in this country and in this continent," he said.

The UNICEF campaign also aims to improve children's and teenagers' knowledge of HIV/AIDS to help prevent the spread of the disease, and in Nigeria it has enlisted soccer hero Nwankwo Kanu to help spread the message through television clips.

It also hopes to reach young people through text messages, taking advantage of a surge in mobile phone use in the past six years. Nine million Nigerian subscribers will receive a text message about HIV/AIDS prevention on Wednesday, UNICEF said.

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