After infecting over 13 million people and causing the death of almost 600,000, Coronavirus remains the world’s undisputed number one public health emergency.
Despite efforts to contain rising infections, community transmission of the virus is still spreading like wildfire in many countries, including Nigeria.
Sadly, the crisis gets worse by the day around the world because there are still no vaccines to protect the body against Covid-19.
But if happenings in the global medical community are anything to go by, the dire picture of rising infections and harvest of deaths may soon give way, as medical researchers seem to be working hard to change the unsavory narrative.
In the United States, Novavax has secured $1.6 billion funding for COVID-19 vaccine production. The fund is expected to help Novavax start a final-stage study of its vaccine candidate.
An American Vaccine Development Firm, Novavax Inc, one of the front runners in the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 treatment, will receive $1.6 billion funding from the US government to support large scale manufacturing of coronavirus vaccine.
This is a boost to the initiative by the US government, to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
The biotech firm said the funds would be used to conduct advanced human studies and engage in manufacturing to deliver 100 million doses as soon as late 2020.
Novavax had earlier secured as much as $388 million in May from the coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the single largest contributions from the organisation at that time.
The biotech company’s vaccine candidate is to provoke the production of antibodies that prevent the spike protein which the coronavirus uses to infect host cells.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), drug manufacturing firms and university researchers are investigating more than 140 experimental vaccines. Pfizer and the University of Oxford, in collaboration with AstraZeneca, are among the companies and institutions that have started studies of their vaccines in healthy patients.
Also, an experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Therapeutics, a US biotech firm, has generated a positive response in a second human trial.
The biotech firm first announced positive interim clinical data from the phase one of the study in May. On the safety of the vaccine, the study said no major side effect was recorded as participants only experienced minor fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site.
“No serious adverse events were noted, and no pre-specified trial halting rules were met. Local adverse events, when present, were nearly all mild or moderate, and pain at the injection site was common.
Across both vaccinations, solicited systemic and local adverse events that occurred in more than half the participants included fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site,” the study read.
The United States Food and Drug Administration has authorised that next phase of the study involving 30,000 people. It will also compare the efficacy of the vaccine against a placebo.
Moderna was announced as one of the five vaccine developers chosen to be part of President Donald Trump’s operation warp speed programme to accelerate development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company in the US, is also at the forefront of finding a vaccine for the disease.
All things being equal, Moderna is in pole position in the global race to find a vaccine against Covid-19. China’s SinoVac is also at an advanced stage; while Russian researchers have completed clinical trials on a vaccine, though they have not shared data.
Much work still needed to be done
Because research is on a breakneck speed, 18 out of about 200 potential vaccines around the world have progressed into clinical trials.
This means such vaccine candidates are now being tested on people, with the first human trial data appears positive. Although a vaccine normally takes years – sometimes decades – to develop, researchers appear to be racing against time to achieve the same amount of work in only a few months.
With the frenetic pace of work done so far, experts expect wide availability of a vaccine by next year, which would be a huge scientific feat.
No doubt, multiple research groups have designed potential vaccines in some countries, with promising clinical trial results to show for their efforts.
However, experts insist that a lot still needs to happen before a vaccine gets to the users. Part of work to do involves trials, which need to show the vaccine is safe because it would not be useful if a vaccine candidate does more harms than the disease.
Besides this, clinical trials will also need to prove that the vaccine brings about an immune response that can protect users from getting sick.
A successful vaccine candidate needs to scale the hurdle of ability or plan to produce billions of doses. This is a stage country regulators must approve before progress is attained.
And if a vaccine is eventually developed, then there will be a limited supply, at least initially. This means prioritising will come into effect, as healthcare workers who are in the frontline of the fight to contain Covid-19 pandemic may top the list.
So are the aged people and others battling pre-existing medical ailments because the disease is most deadly in such people.
Americans are a lucky lot. They live in a fool’s paradise. But they are lucky to always find a life-line or an escape ladder whenever foolery threatens to implode upon them. In their fool’s paradise, Americans see themselves as the makers of our world, set out to confront mother nature, believing they are the chosen race and the world’s smartest people. But just when their so-called paradise is about to cave in and entomb them, luck sees them through escape routes. Luck is what they have again found in their campaign against fast food or junk food, begun before the new Coronavirus pandemic reared its head.
The ‘war’ is to de-popularise meat or fish pie, hot dog, cake, soda (soft drink), sweetened beverages, fries, noodles, pasta, excessive salt, and the likes of them. Why has America been waging war on fast food, and why is the war getting hotter now?
Before the new Coronavirus pandemic, health researchers, physicians and the government had been worried about the rising rate of disease and death from obesity-related conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood cholesterol level and kidney damage, to mention a few of them. For example, a study found that, in Minneapolis, 45 percent of 900 restaurants sold junk food.
The study related this figure to 30 percent obesity among adults and 15 percent obesity among children. In other words, a significant portion of the population may be doomed to die unnecessarily from dangerous diseases simply because they were eating dangerous foods. Persuasive as their arithmetic was, the food industry challenged it, claiming other factors, discovered or not discovered, may also cause obesity. Irrespective of the opposition to the plans to subdue the sale of fast food, the governments of many states in the US pushed ahead with their plans.
In these cities, restaurants which sell fast food previously enjoyed the privilege of operating Drive Through Windows. These are lanes on the road, beside a fast food outlet on which customers could park their vehicles and make their purchases. In order to curb the sale and consumption of fast food and combat obesity, many city authorities have been abolishing the Drive Through Windows.
But now, such abolition has become more aggressive. The abolition is still linked to the obesity war. But many public policy analysts see different hand writing on the wall. That hand writing suggests that the war has been upgraded to silently confront Coronavirus and protect citizens challenged by underlying diseases, who have a higher risk of dying from COVIC-19 complications.
Americans appear now to be taking the bull by the horn as regards the diet of the populace in the wake of the pandemic. I employ the word appear advisedly because it is still unclear if the cities can win their war against the consumption of fast food. The World Health Organisation lost the battle about 40 years ago against white flour, naked sugar, greasy food etc.
But what is impossible where there is the will to push it through and the capacity is not lacking? In my view, Americans as in all things, crafty in this venture against meat pie, hot dog, pizza, noodles, cake, ice cream and all that they have suddenly discovered as their diet, is anti-life. The Standard American Diet (SAD) has been divorced from the life force in all natural foods, and is possibly the reasons their immunity could not cope well with COVIC-19 infection, while Africans, for example, fared better. But they are not linking the efforts to de-popularise junk food to COVIC-19. That is yet an uncharted terrain. They are linking bad food to diseases science has established as the cause.
Coronavirus has inflicted misery on almighty America. These foods consumed by Americans are life-less. The life force in them has been extinguished in the production process. They are, therefore, no better than killer free radicals which are now known to diminish immunity, institute degenerative diseases, hasten the aging process, make the body unable to adequately challenge invading germs and, ultimately, cause premature death.
This is the Fool’s Paradise which the Americans have allowed for decades, stupidly mistaking pseudo health for radiant health, ignoring the warning of such health prophets as Jethro Kloss in his book, Back to Eden. But the lights came on in the cold and dark Fool’s Paradise when common sense and, science began to link obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, elevated cholesterol levels, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and the likes, including cancer, and immune deficiency to these foodless foods, which bring nothing useful to the body, but, as good robbers, steal from it useful food factors to get themselves metabolised.
President Bill Clinton had about 95 percent of his coronary (heart) arteries blocked when he was President, and had to have a coronary by-pass surgery done to save his life. He said afterwards that one of his major regrets while in office was that he did not eat real meals often, the meals he had were meat pie, hot dog, other white flour food and soda. His successor, President Barak Obama, was a luckier man.
His wife was and is still a naturalist. She brought his lunch to the Oval Office, the Presidents office. She converted the flower beds and flower gardens in the White House, the official residence of the President, to organic food farms. She also brought American school children from nearby schools to work with her. Her dream was that if they knew the difference between real food, which heals and preserves, and junk food which damages and kills, they may be able to persuade their parents to pitch tent with mother nature, rather than confront her. After all, it was mother nature that fashioned the body of man in the will of his creator and provided, before his arrival on this earth, the food he would need for the nurture and preservation of this body.
In 1977, I bought a book titled Ninety Days to a Better Heart at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) Bookshop. It was about how the author healed his heart troubles on a wholesome or natural diet. He did not enjoy his childhood and boyhood because his heart could not pump blood well and fast, whenever he needed more energy, because this vital organ was enlarged.
He linked his travails to devitalised food, such as white flour meals and refined or white rice and naked or empty sugar. I learned from him long ago that health problems of many populations escalated when mankind began to mill wheat flour for commercial reasons. Whole wheat could not keep for long because it was so nutrient dense that it attracted weevils during storage and transportation over long distances. This led to spoilage and financial losses.
Degradation of whole wheat to white flour solved the problem. In the degradation, such important nutrients in whole wheat as lecithin and wheat germ oil were removed. Thus, consumers of white flour foods miss these important nutrients which mother nature in her wisdom factored into whole wheat. Whole wheat has cholesterol factors. Lecithin and Vitamin E help to emulsify cholesterol or make it soluble in the blood stream.
White flour, derived from whole wheat can keep for a longer time because it no longer contains lecithin and vitamin E . This makes it possible for white flour to unleash a cholesterol war in the blood stream. A high blood cholesterol level may lead to cholesterol sludge and stone in the blood vessels and gall bladder. This may oppose free blood flow, cause elevated blood pressure and make the cells age and die prematurely from poor oxygen delivery and delayed waste evacuation.
Wheat Germ Oil, from the germ of wheat, is a generous mixture of Vitamin B complex and Vitamin E as well as trace elements, which include Octosonol. The B Vitamins are required for a number of purposes, including digestion, nerve function, energy production, stress reduction etc. Vitamin E is well known for anti- oxidant work, muscles tone, fertility and oxygen management.
Its management, among other muscle toning functions, makes it good for the heart, the uterus and other muscles in the body, including those of the eyes, and limbs. Mountain climbers do well on oxygen management at great heights. Where oxygen is scarce, but Vitamin E is abundant, the latter, especially when backed with selenium supply, supports judicious use of small oxygen stocks. Sickle cell anemia challenged persons do experience this support from vitamin E for their oxygen-deprived condition.
We can, thus imagine, the great loss for people hooked on white flour foods.
Despites the good credentials of wheat, i do not recommend it in aby meal because i do not eat it. The wheat sold around the world today is genetically modify for a much higher yield per acre and bigger profit for the farmers. Its proteins do not go well with the intestine and, therefore, damage the digestive tract of many people who cannot scope with them.
As for white rice, it too, has lost many natural nutrients in the refining process. The vitamins and proteins have been eliminated. Chromium, too has been drastically reduced. Yet, chromium is what is required to drive blood sugar into the cells. Chromiums absence in a white rice diet may, therefore, predispose the white rice addict to elevated blood sugar for which he or she may require chromium picolinate food supplements to be purchased at a health food store.
White flour elevates blood sugar and white rice eaters have to supplement their diet with lecithin, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, wheat germ oil, chromium picolinate etc. to avoid or beat hypertension, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, failing heart, weak erection, or erectile dysfunction. These undesirable health conditions rear their ugly head when we swim against the currents of Mother Nature. Don’t Americans live in a Fool’s Paradise?
China again? I almost screamed when I learned of an outbreak of Bubonic plague in a Mongolian region of this giant Asian country. It was in the O-Level health science class of Mr S.O Kolade of Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, that I first learned about the Bubonic plague which killed more than half of Europe’s population as a result of the outbreak of the pandemic in October 1347.
With controversy about which country brought the new Coronavirus tilting towards China, another Bubonic plague pandemic originating again from China makes that country a leprous nation. I have had no sleepless night over the new Coronavirus or COVID-19, although I have heard about the look- alike symptoms (See CORONAVIRUS: LOOK ALIKE SYMPTOMS JOIN THE LEXICON in www.olufemi kusa.com). I dread the mere thought of the Bubonic plague.
About three times or so, I have mentioned here how we Nigerians are toying with a potential holocaust without realising we are. Sicilians knew better in year 1347 when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked in the Messina. Many of the sailors had died during the voyage. And the survivors of a horrifying disease lay prostate, covered with black boils which oozed blood and pus. They had all been cut down by Bubonic plague which rats and fleas had brought on board.
The ships were sent out of the harbour. But this was an exercise in futility. The bacterium which causes Bubonic plague had traveled to town from China! Within five years, Bubonic plague wiped out between 20 and 25 million people in Europe (the population of today’s Lagos mega city), which was estimated at about 33 percent of Europe’s population at that time. But modern research would appear to be suggesting that although the calamity came through India, China and Persia, the pathogens existed in Europe as early as 3,000 B.C .
Today, there are more fertile grounds for the occurrence and spread of Bubonic plague on a scale far bigger than that of COVIC-19. In Nigeria, we compete with rats for living space in our houses, offices, hospitals, restaurants and food markets. A specie of rats followed by fleas may cause Bubonic plaque if they and the fleas are infected by germs which cause the disease. So, I have tried since the 1970s to keep rats off my residence. If you visit me at home, you will think I am cash-loaded because I tiled the pillars which extend out of the roof of the building.
I had to do that when I discovered that cats were pursuing rats on the cement pillars into the ceiling from where they found their way to other parts of the house. And when they resorted to making new passages by chewing mosquito nets, I doubled the nets. I went a step further when they again bore holes through the reinforcement. This time, I placed rat poison in about 50 locations in the house and on its grounds every month. That gave me peace. If the rat menace did not stop, I would have lined the building all round with one foot length tiles beneath the ground floor widow level. I wish everyone would try periodically to kill rats in and around the home. It would save our country the trauma of another pandemic. Bubonic plaque is deadlier than COVIC-19.
The disease often presented at the outset as swellings, as big as small apples or eggs in the groin or armpits! Then, the swelling oozed blood and pus. Predictably these symptoms were succeeded by fever, diarrhoea, headaches, pains…and death, if the infection got out of hand in the lymphatic system and spread into the blood stream and lungs. So deadly was this communicable disease that healthy people who went to bed at night could be found dead in the morning. The germ which causes the ‘plague, as the disease is now known, was discovered by biologist Alexander Yersin towards the end of the 19th century to be caused by yersina pestis, a bacillus carried about by infected fleas and rats. So poor and loveless were human relations in the pandemic which killed humans and animals alike that doctors declined to treat the sick and priests denied the dead the last rites.
Corpses were thrown into deep pits which rapidly filled up. Where limbs stuck out from overfilled pits, dogs pulled out the bodies and they and vultures had a field day, only to be infected as well and die. For survival, the uninfected population kept infected persons in isolation centres, practised social distancing, wore nose and mouth guards, socks and hand gloves. The star survivours were four thieves who have a message for us in modern pandemics… Go natural. They wore no masks or nose guards or gloves. They invaded homes when someone had been infected and died, abandoned by relatives who fled to avoid contamination. They searched pockets and safes for money, jewelry and other valuables. A judge who was asked to jail them for theft and allied crimes struck a deal with them…if they shared their survival secret, he would let them go. They did.
According to Wikipedia, their secrets were known by different names, including ‘four thieves vinegar’, ‘Marseille vinegar’, ‘Marseilles remedy’, ‘prophylactic vinegar’, ‘vinegar of the four thieves, etc. The thieves said the mother of one of them was a herbalist, who infused some herbs in vinegar and gave it to them to drink and to rub on their bodies. What a helpful message for our time. In the new Corona- Virus era ,and during an experience of COVIC-19 look-alike symptoms (Please check CORONA VIRUS: LOOK-ALIKE SYMPTOMS JOIN THE LEXICON, in www.olufemikusa.com), I availed myself of the support of these herbs. Last Friday, I shared some of the ideas with a group of my former colleagues at The Guardian newspaper, who paid me a visit at home.
The rats were gone, and they had no idea why the pillars were tiled. As we combat COVIC-19 as best as we can, borrowing isolation, social distancing, nose and mouth guards e.t.c. from ancient wisdom, we should not forget the remedy of the four thieves…herbs infused in vinegar…and the fact that the Chinese themselves have reported an outbreak of Bubonic plague, however mild and well-contained! That disease got to Europe and North Africa through the trade routes of those days and the chief transport mode, ships.
Today, air travel has collapsed travel time and geometrically multiplied human traffic across national borders. The Chinese are in Africa. There are probably more Chinese in Nigeria than in the rest of Africa. There are too many rats in Nigeria living with people. Our medical facilities were inadequate, to say the least, even before the COVIC-19 pandemic. We are probably luckier than people in other countries because our diet, relatively speaking, is still wholesome and about 80 percent of the population still rely on herbs for their health and well being.
A COVID-19 vaccine developed by the biotechnology company, Morderna, has shown promise in key early trial, producing immune responses in all persons it was tested on.
The study, which involved 45 healthy adults aged 18-55 years, showed that the vaccine worked to trigger an immune responses in all the participants.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, was co-developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The researchers evaluated two vaccinations, 28 days apart, with mRNA-1273 in a dose of 25 μg, 100 μg, or 250 μg and the initial results from participants showed that the antibody responses among participants were higher with higher dose.
However, the study showed that participants experienced mild side effects such as fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia (muscle pain or muscle ache) xx aand pain at the injection location.
The researchers, led by Lisa Jackson, noted that “the mRNA-1273 vaccine induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified. These findings support further development of this vaccine.”
On the safety of the vaccine, they said “no serious adverse events were noted, and no pre-specified trial halting rules were met.”
They added that “local adverse events, when present, were nearly all mild or moderate, and pain at the injection site was common.
“Across both vaccinations, solicited systemic and local adverse events that occurred in more than half the participants included fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site.”
The researchers said the safety and immunogenicity findings support advancement of the mRNA-1273 vaccine to later-stage clinical trials.
“Of the three doses evaluated, the 100-μg dose elicits high neutralization responses and Th1-skewed CD4 T cell responses, coupled with a reactogenicity profile that is more favourable than that of the higher dose.
“A phase 2 trial of mRNA-1273 in 600 healthy adults, evaluating doses of 50 μg and 100 μg, is ongoing.
“A large phase 3 efficacy trial, expected to evaluate a 100-μg dose, is anticipated to begin during the summer of 2020,” they explained.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) on Saturday says about 47 million women in low and middle-income countries were likely to be deprived of contraceptives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, UNFPA, made this known in a statement released by Mrs Kori Habib, the Media Associate of the fund in Abuja.
Kanem, whose speech is entitled “peace in the home: safeguarding the health and rights of women and girls – even during COVID-19,” in commemoration of World Population Day (WPD) said that the impact of COVID-19 would likely hamper global efforts to achieve three ‘zeros’ at the heart of our UNFPA’s works.
NAN reports that the World Population day is a United Nations’ initiative celebrated on July 11 every year.
NAN reports that the day aims at spreading awareness about the exploding world population and the importance of reproductive health.
She regretted the possibility of a set back in their achieving of the three zero -zero unmet need for contraception, zero preventable maternal deaths, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls by 2030.
“UNFPA projects, for example, that the pandemic will cut global progress towards ending gender-based violence within this decade by at least one third.
“Moreover, if mobility restrictions continue for at least six months with major disruptions to health services.
“47 million women in low- and middle-income countries may be deprived of modern contraceptives, resulting in seven million unintended pregnancies,” Kanem said.
The Executive Director said that peace in the world has its beginning with peace in the home, quoting the United Nations Secretary-General as saying in his call for a global ‘ceasefire’ on Gender-Based Violence.
Describing Gender Based Violence as a pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic, Kanem expressed worry over how one woman in three have experienced physical or sexual violence in her lifetime.
“Now, with countries on lockdown and household tensions heightened, gender-based violence is on the rise, and sexual and reproductive health services are being sidelined by health systems struggling to cope with COVID-19.”
She said that the COVID-19 crisis has taken a staggering toll on people, communities and economies everywhere,noting that not everyone was affected equally as women and girls tend to suffer most.
Kanem however reiterated calls for global attention to the vulnerabilities and needs of women and girls during the COVID-19 crisis aimed at protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights and ending the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence.
“UNFPA is working to ensure that the supply of modern contraceptives and reproductive health commodities is maintained and that midwives and other health personnel have the personal protective equipment they need to stay safe.
“We are encouraged that so far 146 Member States have signed on to the Secretary-General’s call to make peace in the home a reality, and we are partnering to support them.
“As part of our COVID-19 response, we are innovating to deliver remote services such as hotlines, telemedicine and counselling, and gathering and using disaggregated data to support governments in identifying and reaching those most in need.
“Positive public messaging around gender equality and challenging gender stereotypes and harmful social norms can reduce the risk of violence. In this, men and boys can and must be key allies.”
The UNFPA boss said that Sexual and reproductive health care was a right, and like pregnancies and childbirth, human rights could not stop for pandemics.
According to her, together, let’s put the brakes on COVID-19 and safeguard the health and rights of women and girls now!”canvassed for global synergy between countries and organisations saying no organization or country could do this alone.
“The pandemic is a stark reminder of the importance of global cooperation. The United Nations, which this year marks its 75th anniversary, was founded to foster international cooperation to solve international problems.
“As the global community comes together in solidarity to survive this pandemic, we lay the foundation for more resilient, gender-equal societies and a healthier, more prosperous future for all.” (NAN)
Nigeria is one of the countries yet to implement multi-month refill policies for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) medicines, which allows dispensing longer prescriptions to People Living With HIV/AIDS(PLWHA) for at least for 90 days rather than the usual 30 days.
The non-implementation of a multi-month policy, even in an era of major restrictions on physical movements and travels which the COVID-19 pandemic has birthed, may adversely affect the country’s response to ending the global epidemic.
COVID-19 and its numerous challenges, as well as rife stigmatisation and discrimination against PLWHA, may knock Nigeria off track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Many young HIV positive Nigerians in dire need of drugs, having run out of supplies because they cannot go to their treatment centres, confided in TOBORE OVUORIE that they have never disclosed their statuses to their parents or any family member and will never do so; even in this critical COVID-19 era.
11 of those affected: Opeyemi, Bimpe, Tokunboh, Chiedu, Lawrence, Olamide, Adaobi, Michael, Osas, Beauty and Abdul spoke with me. All are undergraduates in higher institutions between 17-22 years. They are from diverse backgrounds with different orientations and worldviews. Some know each other. Most don’t. But they share two things in common: top secrets, now well-kept with me. I can only share some of their experiences in this three-part series but must keep their identities top secrets, too.
Here are their stories.
APRIL 7TH, 2020 1.34PM
“Haa! It is not possible, ma. My parents will kill me.”
“This is a dicey one. Your parents won’t allow you leave Lagos for Benin without very good reasons since schools are not in session. Ope, see, your parents cannot kill you. Will they be shocked? Yes. But they will get over it and be involved with your accessing care; at least, for your refill and viral load checks.” I was not done with what I wanted to tell Opeyemi before he interrupted my flow. “Not that kinda kill. They will disown me, stop my education and I will become the topic for sermons in church and painted as evil.”
“Your parents are pastors?”
“My dad is. MFM (Mountain of Fire and Miracles).”
“Hmmmmm”
“Now you understand why I can’t and must never tell my parents or anyone in my family that I am HIV positive.”
REWIND THE GENESIS
It all began on Tuesday March 31 after the Federal Government directed all tertiary institutions of learning be shut down to curb the community spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
I vividly remember Steven, popularly known as Odogwu Dollars, amongst our peers, started phoning me at exactly 2.54am that day. I ignored his calls and continued with the video editing script I was writing for the first phase of my three-part investigative series on illegal migration for publication on July 30. Odogwu only remembers me whenever he needs assistance. I was forced to answer his call at about 3.10am when it dawned on me he will run my phone’s battery down with his usual but annoying speed-dial.
I wasn’t wrong.
Odogwu needed at least a bottle of antiretroviral. Not for him. It is for Beauty, a 20-year-old third year student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Antiretroviral, also known as ARV, is the medicine People Living With HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) take every day to fight and stop the damages the virus carries out in the body. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the infection attacks the body’s immune system, particularly the white blood cells called CD4 cells.
When affected persons don’t take their antiretroviral medications and consistently, their immunity against infections become weakened because the virus destroys their CD4 cells. This can result in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which can lead to serious illness and death.
While hurrying to pack and leave her hall of residence, as insufficient notice was given to them to exit the hostel, Beauty mistakenly placed her antiretroviral in the wrong box which she had decided to leave behind in school thinking academic session won’t be interrupted for long. She was already at home with her family in Benin, Edo state, when she discovered the grievous error.
“ARVs are not hawked on the streets of Lagos. Neither are they dispensed easily and cheaply like paracetamol in hospitals. But let’s see what happens,” I told Odogwu. I made no promises but was shocked when Beauty phoned me later in the morning same day.
MARCH 31st, 2020 10.05AM
“Please ma, help me. I have missed eleven days already,” Beauty sounded like she would burst into tears.
“It’s not as easy as you think. First, I don’t work in a hospital. Abi did Odogwu tell you I’m a doctor?”
“No, ma.”
“E-hen. So, a doctor friend is the one to help out with the drugs if he can. And, he could lose his job if it’s discovered he gave antiretrovirals to someone who is not the centre’s registered and physically present patient.” Beauty interrupted me.
Her voice louder than before and ladened with sobs. “Ma, please, help me ma. My viral load is not yet good.”
“Secondly, we must look for exactly that which you are taking or something in the same family with it.” She cut me short again but already in tears. “Please ma, or can you help me go to my hostel in school? My roommate and friend has the key to where it is. I will call her to follow you to the hostel.”
“UNILAG is empty. There would be no one in the hostel. You live in Moremi Hall, not so?”
“Yes”
“I was in Moremi Hall on 20th of March when the announcement was made that everyone should vacate the hostel due to coronavirus. Even if we meet someone at the hostel, the hall porters won’t allow us in. What about you simply tell your parents so that they will allow you come to Lagos easily for your ARV, CD4 Count and any other stuff?”
“Haaa. Aunty, it’s not possible! Nobody in my family even knows I have HIV.”
“Why? Your parents will support you if you tell them.”
“Haaaa, Aunty. It’s not possible o. My people don’t believe in girls going to university. In my family, once you have written your first WAEC, that’s it o! You pass, you don’t pass, means nothing to them. They wanted me to learn hairdressing then travel to Spain, Holland or Italy. I hustled for money to write JAMB, passed very well and entered UNILAG without knowing anybody there. Is it people who tell me my going to university is a waste of time that will now support me when they hear I now have HIV?”
I tried to say something but she cut me short again.
“Ordinary to pay only school fees o, they abuse hell out of me that my mates are already in Europe controlling money home to Benin from jand. Aunty, na big excuse for dem nor to pay my school fees be dat o. In short, dem go pursue me comot from house join sef!” Beauty’s pitch was several decibels higher. Her impeccable English thoroughly mixed with pidgin English popularly known as Waffi- in Nigeria.
HIV PHENOMENON IN NIGERIA
Opeyemi and Beauty are two out of the estimated 1.9 million persons living with HIV in Nigeria. A 2019 national survey partnership conducted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) titled: ‘Nigeria National HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS),’ indicates the national HIV prevalence has reduced to 1.4 percent among adults aged 15-49 years when compared to the previous 2.8 percent, estimate.
The survey states that girls and women between the ages 15-49 are more than twice as likely to be living with the virus than men. A differential ratio of 1.9 versus 0.9 percent is stipulated for both genders, respectively.
However, the difference in HIV prevalence between women and men is greater among younger adults, with young women aged 20-24 years more than three times as likely to be living with HIV compared to men in the same age group. At the national level, viral suppression among people living with HIV aged 15–49 years stands at 42.3 percent. That is, 45.3 percent among women and 34.5 percent among men.
According to the 2019 national data, Nigeria’s South-South zone has the highest HIV prevalence at 3.1 percent among adults aged 15-49 years. The North-Central zone has a prevalence rate of 2.0 percent while the South-East has a 1.9 percent rate.
The survey indicates South-West has a lower HIV prevalence at 1.1 percent while the North-East and North-West Zones follow in same stride with 1.1 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
The HIV/AIDS virus remains one of humankind’s greatest global health challenges as it has spread across all countries. The spread is on the increase among heterosexuals and bisexual males but predominantly among young persons in African countries like Nigeria. The rapid growth of HIV positive cases in the last few years globally and in Africa indicates majority of Nigerians infected with the virus are the youths. The UNAIDS says the virus is predominant among young people in Africa because they constitute larger percent of the society.
In November 2016, the National Population Commission put Nigeria’s populations at 182 million people with a widening youth bulge because more than half of these persons were under 30 years of age. However, by Friday June 26th, 2020 at 9.44am, Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data indicates the current population of Nigeria is 206,018,277.
Nigeria has shown steady progress on increasing access to treatment for PLWHA with the adoption of a test- and- treat policy in 2016. This measure has further accelerated referrals to treatment facilities for people who test positive for the virus.
From 2010 to 2017, the country almost tripled the number of PLWHA having access to antiretroviral therapy moved up from 360, 000 in 2010 to more than 1 million in 2018. However, the NAISS indicates that more than half of people living with HIV still do not have suppressed viral loads.
The COVID-19 and its consequent restrictions and challenges may cause a spike in the number of persons without suppressed viral loads, such as young persons who are hiding their status from their parents, guardians and families.
YOUNG NIGERIAN STUDENTS’ HIV PERSPECTIVE
In the last five years, there has been a significant expansion in the country’s response to HIV. The number of hubs providing treatment has tripled with over 201 centres unlike previous years. For instance, the number of centres providing services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV have increased eightfold and the number of HIV counseling and testing sites has increased fourfold. A total of 11.3 million adults were counseled and tested for HIV in 2016, four times as many as in 2012.
But the country is still lagging behind in provision of counseling, test and treatment centres strictly for young persons. Nigeria has not prioritised tailor-made policy for HIV control for young persons of institutions of higher education.
Undergraduates, who spoke with me for this story, said they were yet to test for HIV because when they walked into some of the centres, they didn’t see anyone in their age group there. So, they walked out, never to return. Some said they didn’t like the way the adults in the place looked at them so they left, while others feared an adult there may know one or both of their parents.
The prize for rendering assistance is more requests for assistance; not thank you. After I successfully got multi-month refill of HIV medicines which would last Beauty for 90 days/three months, my phone started buzzing with calls from students of various higher institutions of learning in dire need of ARVs.
I don’t know who has been sharing my phone number around telling these young undergraduates that I can help them with free ARVs during this period that they are home and still hide their identities and HIV status. Beauty denies sharing my number with other persons. Odogwu, too. But I suspect Odogwu is the culprit. Well, that is how I got to meet Bimpe and other young persons who are hiding their HIV statuses from their families.
Bimpe, 19, a second year student at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, would have submitted herself to be tested for HIV since last year. “When I walked into where I was to wait at NIMR (Nigerian Institute of Medical Research), I didn’t see my mates there,” she stated.
“You mean, not even one young person like you there?”
“That day, I didn’t see o. They were all looking one kind. As I entered and sat down, some were even looking at me like television. I became afraid that they possibly know my mom that’s why they were staring at me. See, they were actually gazing, not staring.”
“Why were you afraid they possibly knew your mother?”
“Haa. Ma, you will understand if ever you meet my mom. She is fire!”
“Fire?”
“Yes, fire. Aunty, maami kii n s’eran riro. My mom is tough. Very tough.” I guess she interpreted the Yoruba statement thinking I don’t understand the language. She was wrong.
“So, she will kill you?”
“Aunty, she is unpredictable. But I know everything bad will happen if she hears I am HIV positive.”
“Everything bad, like what?”
“See, my mom refused me accepting admission at UNILAG because she thinks girls that go to universities, especially UNILAG will become corrupt. I passed and my name appeared on UNILAG admission list but my mom refused me going o.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. She believes boys can attend universities and girls should not. My mom thinks girls who attend polytechnics are better behaved and won’t get corrupt. That’s how I ended up in Yabatech o.”
My attempt at not roaring with laughter was successful. It was my first time of hearing such. And, I found it highly ludicrous.
Curiosity to get checked for HIV because of some tweets about HIV she had seen made her return to NIMR, Yaba at about past 4pm sometime in November last year. But, the person to administer the test on her was closed for the day. That ended her curiosity to be tested for HIV until January 2020 when the doctor who had been treating her for malaria and excessive weight loss for over four months, recommended XYZ test.
She checked online and discovered it meant HIV test. She left her school environment to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja to get tested because she felt better protected testing somewhere far from school and home.
Bimpe tested positive.
She was later told her viral load was at an abysmal level, immediately placed on ARV and commenced regular check-up appointments at a treatment facility in Lagos (name deliberately withheld). She was already adapting to the new and healthier lifestyle until COVID-19 and its restrictions arrived.
MORAL POLICING AND COMMODITIZATION OF GIRLS AND WOMEN
Bimpe never expected to test positive. Her (now ex) boyfriend was the only person she was seeing. They had been together since the second month of her resumption at Yabatech. And, she never had vaginal sex. So, she found her test result shocking. She went to two other places to retest. The results never changed.
“When you say you have never had vaginal sex, how do you mean?”
“We were doing it from behind.”
“Anal?”
“Yes.” I noticed Bimpe’s voice level had dropped, her countenance changed, her light skin turning red, her head bowed down. Relieving embarrassing, painful and regretful memories, I thought.
“One can contract HIV through anal sex.”
“I never knew until then.”
“I’m sorry to ask, why anal? Please, I’m not judging you; just curious.”
“That’s the only way to make my mom feel I’m still a virgin.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She monitors and checks if my hymen is still intact.” Bimpe paused while I stared at her trying to mask my being shocked. She continued “She wants us to keep the bed undefiled until our wedding nights.”
“How do you mean by US?”
“My sisters and I”
“How many are they?”
“We are three girls.”
“Is your father aware of this?”
“He is dead.”
“I’m sorry to hear about this.”
“It’s ok ma. Mom has been the only one fending for my sisters and I.”
“She didn’t remarry?”
“No. She never did notwithstanding she was young when my daddy died.
“Please, how long ago is this?”
“He died three months before I was born.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks ma.”
I noticed she was already sniffling, so ended the session with her.
Two days later, I got her three bottles of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate PDM Schedule 2; the exact antiretroviral she is on. They will last her for 90 days. I have been on the lookout for when schools would resume so she wouldn’t be under her mother’s lock and key while I can urge and monitor her going for the proper HIV treatment regimen.
COVID-19: IMPACT ON YOUNG PERSONS’ VIRAL SUPPRESSION
Studies so far indicate when PLWHAs are virally suppressed, they remain healthy and transmission of the virus is prevented. This can be achieved through consistent treatment / taking their antiretroviral medication daily and at the exact time recommended. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 and subsequent restrictions are making this almost impossible for many young persons, such as Adaobi because schools are not in session while their parents are in the dark about their HIV status.
In 2018, Adaobi, 21, now a 400 level engineering student at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), was in Lagos shopping for clothes she planned to sell on campus when representatives of a nonprofit organization came to inform her about an ongoing free HIV test session. The screening point was a walking distance from her. She was reluctant but eventually agreed to get tested.
Adaobi fainted on seeing her result.
She comes to Lagos every month for monthly refills of her HIV medicine and CD4 count check. This is the test through which her viral load is monitored and has been doing this for the past two years. She chose Lagos because it is far from school and home, so reduces the possibility of a school mate seeing her in a facility for persons living with HIV.
Adaobi has been able to manage her schedule between school in Akure, Ondo state, treatment in Lagos and being with her family in Onitsha. She still finds it hard to believe that “just a mere disease” (COVID-19), can mess her plans and wants to ruin her “little secret.” Her exact words.
Running out of her medication is not her only challenge. Being able to consistently take the ARV at exactly 8.30pm while with her family has been a huge challenge.
PLWHAs are advised to take their HIV medicines not only daily but at the exact time they took it for the first time. If, for instance, a person took the ARV for the first time at 9pm, he or she must always take it at that time. Not even a minute late. Adaobi has been faithful with taking her medicine until the compulsory long stay with her family in Onitsha due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“I take my antiretroviral at exactly 8.30pm. No matter what I am doing, I leave it and sleep for the day. But it’s been difficult since my being with my people.”
“Why?”
“Always, we start preparing night food at past seven in the night. So, the time I should have eaten and take my medicine is affected. At some point, I found a way to eat early and take my medicine, but when I’m already drowsy and sleeping is when my mom will wake me to come and make soup, serve my father his food, run some errands or join everybody for night prayers. And, prayers are always very long.”
“How do you intend to manage this if I’m able to send you the medicine you need?”
“I don’t know. My father has started complaining that I sleep like a chicken. My mom asks questions anytime she sees me taking the medicine. I tell her its multivitamin supplement for my eyes. I have been having problems with my eyes so she believes me.”
“Believes you? Even with what is written on the bottle of the ARV?”
“No o. I always put the medicine inside a multivitamin supplement bottle. That way, no one knows its HIV medicine.”
FEARS CONFIRMED
Beauty’s fears that her parents will end her education if her HIV positive status is uncovered turns out to be true. June 20th, 2020, I contacted her father on phone claiming I am a regular customer at his food store situated near one of the higher institutions of education in Edo state.
I then subsequently sent a two-question survey to him via WhatsApp wanting to know what he will do should his child who left home for the university with a HIV negative status subsequently tests positive to the virus after settling on campus.
“If my daughter who left my house HIV negative when going to university for the first time, returns home with HIV, then she should not bother going back to school. I won’t allow her waste my money. Na book I send her go read. I no send her go flex. And, if she thinks say she fit flex so tey she rock HIV join sef, na red card be that for her.”
“Sir, but HIV doesn’t affect learning. She can still live a normal life, don’t you think so?”
“Which yeye normal life? Which man go free marry woman wey don catch HIV?
“They do o. I know of HIV negative men who are married to HIV positive women.”
“E no possible. Stop lying to yourself.”
“I’m not lying sir. They are people well known to me.”
“That’s the problem with you girls wey too read book. Una think say una fit yarn dust and everybody must believe you. I dey always talk am, secondary school (education) don do for woman. When dem go university, dem go become know-know, waka-waka and catching HIV go be the certificate dem go bring come house.”
(PICTURE 5A)
Mr. Obatunde Oladapo, Executive Director, PLAN Health Advocacy and Development Foundation, Oyo state, says persons who believe that HIV is contracted only through sexual intercourse are still living in stark ignorance about the basics of how people get infected and the risk factors. He questions the quality of parenting of the young PLWHAs featured in this story.
“If your child cannot confide in you, then, there is a problem. Parents should also always realise that they have responsibility over their children. If your child is not doing things right, at a point in time, there must be somewhere that you have lost it,” he said.
A day before sending the two-question survey to Opeyemi’s father, I phoned him to say hello introducing myself as one of the students he ministered to at the University of Ibadan two semesters ago. Opeyemi was 100 percent correct about what would become of him should his parents, particularly his dad, be told about his being HIV Positive.
“God forbid! No child of mine will have HIV in Jesus name.”
“Sir, it’s only an assumption for research purpose”
“I will not answer such demonic question. Are you really sure you are born-again?”
“I am, sir. And spirit filled.”
“I doubt it. No spirit filled person will imagine and ask such about another child of God. My children are purified and anointed for supernatural exploits. They will never end up with such evil result. Only carnal people end up with HIV.”
“Sir, it’s only a survey.”
“That is not a question to be asked. I refuse to partake in such demonic survey. I consider this conversation over.”
(PICTURE 6A)
According to Oladapo, the parents of young persons featured in this story need help because they are the problem. He said in the long run, it is an opportunity for parents such as Opeyemi’s father to realise that he has been fooling himself and come down from his high horse to face the reality of life.
“It is not a matter of faith. It’s not a matter of being holy. It’s not a matter of being religious. It’s a matter of life and HIV is a biological thing, it is not a spiritual thing. He does not understand it. He (Opeyemi’s father) does not understand it.”
According to him, PLWHAs being consistent with their treatments is what is needed, not praying the virus away.
“There are things that are within the control of man (human beings) that we don’t have to put before God… For God sake, one tests positive, and he is talking about being carnal?
“Don’t we have pastors that are HIV positive? At least, I know two medical doctors that are HIV positive, as we speak. I know two ex-Governors, apart from slapping Senator that everybody knows. I know other Senators that are positive and ex-Senators, too. And, Pastors, too. So, what’s the point!? Does HIV care about anybody’s status? It’s a biological thing,” he added.
He said the church is grossly uninformed about HIV. The faith- based response is very weak and uninformed. He said for the faith- based response to be effective, there should be a clear line of delineation from the science of HIV and the religious and spiritual aspect of caring for a person and being able to help young persons with information to prevent themselves from being infected.
“…MY MOTHER DOESNT KNOW I HAVE BEEN HIV POSITIVE FOR OVER 10 YEARS!”
Many factors make Nigeria’s population, especially young people vulnerable to contracting HIV. These include Nigeria’s low income socio-economic status, illiteracy, hypocritical, contradictory and negative cultural beliefs about sex, unemployment and large population living mostly in rural parts of the country.
There are over 45.5 million young persons in Nigeria. This is more than half the population of all West African countries. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. This is why young persons are at the centres of the HIV/AIDS challenge in Nigeria and several others.
Researches indicate persons age15-24 years are the most affected age group. Female undergraduate students are highly vulnerable to contracting the virus and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) mainly because poor access to sexual and reproductive health education and commodities have resulted in low condom use during sexual intercourse.
However, studies repeatedly indicate Nigerians discriminate against, reject and stigmatise persons living with HIV. Such is very common even within families. Reason many persons living with the virus such as Grace, keep their statuses secrets from their families, though they all live under the same roof, eat and laugh together.
Grace, who will be 28 later this year, has been living with HIV for over 10 years. And, her mother is in the dark while Grace has no plan of informing her. “Because my mother will stigmatise me if she knows my status,” she tells me in this video interview she granted but with her identity protected.
Unfortunately, due to stigmatisation and lack of youth friendly testing centres, most of the young persons I interviewed for this story are unwilling to subject themselves for HIV tests.
THEATRICS AND FEMINISATION OF HIV
“If my child is having HIV, there is no need of attending school. I will have to withdraw the child from the school….”
This was the reaction of Mr. Ehigiator Nosakhare, a taxi driver in Benin city, Edo state. He wasn’t talking about his son. He thinks letting “her” go to school with the virus residing in her is risky. Though no specific gender was referred to in the question posed to him, he automatically felt only a girl-child will test positive to HIV. He would protect others- the school community, by keeping her at home. Questioned about her right to education, he said she will school at home. He would get her a home teacher.
Nosakhare is not the only father with this mindset. Some parents out of the numerous whose thoughts and ideas about HIV I have sampled, share same sentiment.
He described himself simple as Osayimwense, a business man. To him, HIV will not spread in schools if girls living with the virus don’t prostitute themselves. “When she knows fully well that she is such a person, if she can keep herself, she cannot spread it,” were a part of his words.
“… if that child is a female child, if she continues prostituting, she can spread it. When she knows fully well that she is such a person, if she can keep herself, she cannot spread it.”
Mr. Osayimwense, Businessman
“NO SCHOOL FOR OUR CHILDREN WHO TEST POSITIVE TO HIV!”
Mr. Gentle is an automobile repairer at Jakpa, in Warri, Delta state. He says should his younger brother tests positive for HIV, he wouldn’t give a damn. But he fears contracting the virus from him. He however says he will inform the school about the brother’s HIV status only after he has been withdrawn from school. That way, according to him, the school can check other students.
Mr. Gentle believes withdrawing his brother from school is the only way to prevent spread of the virus in the school community.
“People living with HIV do not live long,” he says. He doesn’t know there is a medication- antiretroviral, for HIV. Though he has been seeing it on TV, he doesn’t know it is real.
Many parents interviewed in Lagos, Ogun, Edo and Delta states respectively as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, feel ending a child’s education is the only way to curb the spread of HIV. Mary, a trader at the Sapele, joined other parents in saying she would withdraw her child from school for testing positive to HIV.
“I won’t allow her go to school if she tests positive for HIV. She will be at home. If contracting it was not of her making (through sex), I will look for solution for her. I am sure there are herbs that will help her. It would be combined with whatever we are given at the hospital,” Baba Tosin, a plumber based in Ekpoma, the part of Edo state, which hosts the Ambrose Alli University, said.
Baba Tosin says if the daughter contracts it through sex, he will abandon her for sometimes after being withdrawn from school. This is to teach her a lesson. Then, “will look for solution for her.” His belief? A combination of herbs and visits to the hospital, he thinks, is the surest way to keep the daughter alive.
“When she is alright, I will enroll her as an apprentice to a tailor. That is the price to be paid for being wayward and contracting HIV in the process. At least, there’s good money in sewing business,” he says in a combination of stammering English, fluent Yoruba and pidgin.
Asked if it were his son who tests positive, what will he do? “It is mostly females who contract it,” he retorts. “Boys don’t prostitute like girls do.”
NIGERIA’S VERY WEAK MEDICAL REFERRAL SYSTEM AND UNCONNECTED HIV TREAMENT CENTERS
The investigations carried out so far amongst several young People Living With HIV, and majority of them being students studying in 16 different higher institutions of education in the country, reveal Nigeria has a huge gap and challenge of medical referrals in her HIV treatment programme.
In countries where there is a good medical referrals system, patients simply go to centres at the new place where they located or wherever they are stranded, and the centers where they are coming from are contacted for verification, then medications are dispensed to them at their new locations.
This is made possible because, for instance, in more advanced countries, all the clinics are connected and patients’ medical information are rigorously defended. But investigations for this story reveal that in Nigeria there is no system of referral, whether electronically held, or in hard copies.
Findings so far in the course of this investigative series reveal patients on treatment programmes for ailments such as HIV and Tuberculosis, which need monitoring, do not have reference numbers on anonymous cards which shouldn’t indicate them being for HIV clinics; so that whenever they change locations, especially if suddenly as caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, they can still have access to treatments and medications at facilities closest to them in their new locations.
The plights of these young persons in this story exposes gaps in Nigeria’s treatment programme as the referral system is weak, and the treatment centers are not connected.
WAY FORWARD
Oladapo said the solutions to these problems during and post COVID-19 era is delivery of HIV services and treatment through taking the HIV medicines to the doorsteps of persons living with the virus, if possible. Or, close to them, if they do not want the medicines brought to their homes.
He also recommended Nigeria should adopt mobile phlebotomy services during and post COVID-19 era. This involves taking the samples of People Living with HIV for viral load or CD4 monitoring and this can be done without people around knowing. It can be done through getting the person living with HIV to sit at the back of the car, as if the tester and the person are chatting, take his or her sample and the person goes back home.
He urged the Nigerian government to ensure HIV medicines and treatments get to persons living with HIV irrespective of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19.
One of the respondents whose opinions was surveyed for this story, a student of Babcock university, Ilishan, Remo, Ogun state, who simply described herself as Nehi, suggests that schools or the government should introduce HIV e-learning through academic libraries which will enable young persons like her to learn about HIV/AIDS at their own pace and “away from prying nosey adults.”
She says there is the need for the provision of health information services through libraries to high-risk population such as young persons in Nigeria’s higher institutions of learning because they are increasingly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS through alcohol and drug abuse, peer pressure, unprotected and risky sexual behaviour. Neri also suggests awareness campaigns on campuses should address the intense social stigma attached to the disease.
Mr. Oladapo suggests biometric registration of persons living with HIV as a solution to ensure medical doctors and key health personnels at other treatment centers are able to access a patient’s records, though registered and receiving treatment at a different facility. He said protocols should be put in place to guard against the information falling into wrong hands. In addition to this, unique numbers should be given to various persons living with the virus at their treatment facilities; that way, they can receive their medications and treatments at other facilities and states.
The former Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe says Nigeria should not let her guard down. He called for better focus on delivery of HIV prevention, treatment and care services to those in direst need of them. That, way, Nigeria will be on the path to ending AIDS in the country by 2030.
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, current UNAIDS Executive Director calls on everyone globally to get involved in the HIV/COVID-19 response and recovery. She urges “All African leaders and citizens to join hands with others and advocate that a global problem finds a global solution.”
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, current UNAIDS Executive Director
Rotimi Sankore Development Journalist, Rights Advocate and formerly Coordinator of the Africa Public Health Alliance and 15%+ Campaign elaborated that “The problems faced by these youth reflect the lack of a well organised health referral management system in Nigeria which can help all patients moving from one location to another maintain treatment.
“When we launched the Africa 15%+ Health Financing Campaign with Nobel Laureate Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu as Chair, one of our demands was that governments introduce referral systems as a way of reducing inefficiency and ensuring anyone requiring continued treatment for TB or HIV due to re-location can do so. Aside from unnecessary stress and inefficiency, one of the risks of interrupted treatment is development of drug resistant variants of diseases which is making Africa’s disease burden even heavier and more expensive.
“It’s a real shame that 19 years after the Abuja AU Heads of State Health Financing Summit, COVID19 has again exposed the lack of a basic referral system in Nigeria. This problem has to be fixed to strengthen Nigeria’s health systems from Primary to Tertiary levels. We have an estimated 15.8 million young people in Tertiary institutions. Imagine just 10 percent of them needing to continue with any treatment outside school and finding out they cannot.”
The names of the students living with HIV featured in this report were changed for their privacy in accordance with HIV reporting ethics. It is unethical for parents/guardians to learn about their children/wards’ HIV status through this story.
This report was facilitated by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under its COVID-19 Reality Check Project.
The Rotary Club of Eko Atlantic has donated laboratory equipment to Ogba Primary Health Centre, in fulfilment of its pledge to help end sickle cell, cancer, maternal and infant diseases in Lagos State.
The items included electrophoresis machine, medical centrifuge machine, laboratory/research binocular microscope, heamoglobin metre and laboratory incubator to upgrade testing and diagnosis capacity to reduce death rates in the state.
Handing over the equipment, the club’s immediate past president, Dr. Sunit Deb Roy, explained that it donated the items to actualise its mission in its six core areas.
The project, Roy said, targets healthcare, as the club seeks to end mortality arising from child bearing, sickle cell, cancer and typhoid, among other diseases. The project was made possible through the project leader Adesola Bada, Kishore Bendre and Gboyega Bada, he said.
“We had inspected the delivery room, laboratory, and all the departments in the facility and how we can upgrade them.
We are donating five laboratory equipment so that people can come to this healthcare centre to do culture test, pregnancy test, typhoid test, genotype and PCV, among other tests.
And these are the common tests people run around spending money to do. We need to do tests for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
We have adopted this health facility and will ensure we upgrade it to the highest standard,” he said.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist, Dr. Akinkunmi Tolu, said the medical equipment are vital to boosting diagnosis in pregnant women and children, who contract respiratory tract infection and other diseases, adding that proper tests and treatment would be administered rather than trying different types of medication that put lives at risk.
The equipment will boost the medical laboratory investigation and will also enhance the speedy recovery of patients after investigation, as well as help reduce death rate among residents of the community, the hospital said.
The health centre said the centrifuge will be used for segmentation of fluids and run other tests where the serum is used.
He said: “For the test we can do here, we can run pregnancy test, blood, microscopic test to detect cells, sexual transmitted disease, genotype, PCV, heamoglobin and forensic, which detects the genes.
The light microscope is used to run culture and sensitivity test to check for ailments such as malaria, typhoid and all the sediments in urine.
‘’These machines for these particular tests are not something you get in regular healthcare centres, we are very privileged and glad that we have this at Ogba PHC.”
To celebrate the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, BewiAfrica, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), has sensitised teenagers and other young people in Fadeyi and Ojuelegba areas of Lagos on the negative effects of drugs to their health and future.
The theme of the outreach, which was BewiAfrica’s maiden edition, was “Better Knowledge for Better Care.” It emphasised the need to improve the understanding of the world drug problem and how better knowledge will foster greater international cooperation for countering the impact of drugs on health, governance and security.
Founder, BewiAfrica, Ms. Florence Hungbo, said the group decided to enlighten the youth, especially students who have become entrenched in substances abuse, because of huge negative effects of drugs on their well-being and future.
“We visited the youth and leaders in Fadeyi and Ojuelegba with some entertainers and therapists to lecture the youths on the dangers of drug abuse on their health and future.
We will carry out more awareness and outreaches in areas identified as having high cases of drug abuse,” she said.
Hungbo, who is also the Managing Director, Bodex Group International, added that the mission of the outreach is to strengthen global action and cooperation towards creating a society that is free from drug abuse and unlawful drug trade.
“I must appreciate everyone that took part in the event. We promise to touch more lives and reach more places in the state and beyond,” she pledged.
A popular transport unionist at Fadeyi, Femi Akinboyeku (aka J.Plum) condemned drug abuse, disclosing to participants that he doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol.
“Today, I have been able to achieve so much because I don’t do drugs. If I did, I would not have been anywhere near where I have reached in my profession,” he said.
The Vice Chairman, Somolu Local Government, Bowale Sosimi, commended BewiAfrica, saying that the move was exceptional and the first of its kind for the youth.
The Deputy Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ojuelegba, Aransiola Qudus, lauded BewiAfrica for choosing the area for the awareness.
Qudus said: “We thank BewiAfrica for this initiative. As for the youths and our leaders present, please extend all you have learnt to others.”
TO prevent the community spread of HIV/AIDS during the Covid-19 global pandemic, the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) has started the training of artisans.
This, the agency explained, is necessary to quicken the pace towards eradicating HIV/AIDS in the state.
The training, which targets the executives of the Nigeria Automobile Technician Association (NATA), Lagos State chapter, is designed to achieve the global epidemic control of HIV/AIDS by 2020 through the UNAIDS 90-90-90 initiative (i.e. 90 per cent of people living with the virus should know their status; 90 per cent of HIV-positive individuals should be initiated on anti-retroviral (ART) drugs; while 90 per cent of individuals on anti-retroviral (ART) drugs should achieve viral suppression so that total eradication can become a reality by 2030).
LSACA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Monsurat Adeleke said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who doubles as the chairman of LSACA, has approved the release of funds for HIV/AIDS campaign for the Lagos State chapter of NATA.
“The current administration is dedicated to curbing HIV Transmission in the community, with a strong focus on youth development and well-being.
This professional group was selected because of their daily interactions with community members. Despite that there is an ongoing pandemic, NATA members still provide services for other residents, such as healthcare workers, journalists, and police who patronise them for mobility through the repairs or servicing of their vehicles,” she said.
The LSACA chief urged the participants, who were drawn from the 20 local government areas of the state to serve as HIV agents of change in their communities, to assist in cascading the knowledge acquired during the training to their apprentices, which are mostly the youth.
Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant negative impact on the health of people battling with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, there is still insufficient evidence on the number of Nigerians who are at risk.
“Evidence globally shows that those living with NCDs are particularly vulnerable. The full extent of this may be unknown, due to the many cases of NCDs that go undiagnosed. The prevention and control of NCDs therefore has a crucial role in the COVID-19 response.
If the COVID-19 response is not adapted to encompass prevention and management of NCD risks, we will fail many people at a time when their vulnerability is heightened,” Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, said.
This has led to the partnership between Novartis, a global pharmaceutical company, and WellNewMe, a Lagos-based health technology company that provides services to improve population health and reduce costs/losses associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes type II, hypertension and mental health, to run a year-long pilot in determining risk factors amongst adult Nigerians.
Recognising that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are driven by exposure to risk factors related to human behaviour and genetics, WellNewMe designed an algorithm-based health risk assessment platform that encompasses psychological, physical and social domains, which are known to influence NCD risk and prognosis in cases of established disease.
Being a global leader in the cardiovascular healthcare space, Novartis has also mobilised the setup of these cardiovascular risk assessment stations at various pharmacies across the country with the aim of reaching a thousand patients.
The platform incorporates the ability for healthcare providers to standardise their approach to cardiovascular disease management by using an algorithmic process and harnessing relevant data to ensure a set of potential outputs, which result in better outcomes for the patient.
The results of the pilot, which revealed that a total of 1,900 people were enrolled for the pilot, and 1,269 of them completed the assessment as part of the pilot, were released last month.
Participants were from across all the states, and the Federal Capital Territory, with the majority of them coming from Lagos (30 per cent), Oyo (8 per cent), Abuja FCT (Eight per cent), Ogun (Seven per cent) and Rivers (Five per cent).
Results showed that three quarters of those who completed the assessment were found to have an increased risk of developing a chronic disease, with men more at risk than women.
It also found that risk increases as the age increases, while those aged 50 and above have increased risk.
The results also showed that women (43 per cent) seem more at risk than men (36 per cent) for developing hypertension, while the risk increases as the age of the pilot enrolee increased.
With diabetes, it was found that almost three quarters of those assessed had an increased risk of having diabetes with 10 per cent having a high risk; while men are more at risk than women.
The diabetes risk also increases as the age of the pilot enrolee increases. Some of the other interesting anecdote from the pilot revealed that men were four times more likely to be at risk for developing cardiac disease, and in Rivers, 85 per cent of the adults assessed had an increase risk for developing chronic disease.
According to co-founder of WellNewMe and author of the pilot report, Dr. Obi Igbokwe, the report does lend importance to considerations by the health authorities when designing the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that they need to factor in NCDs as well.
“As patients with chronic diseases are at greater risk of the coronavirus; that in itself presents an extra burden on our already struggling health services across the country.
It is also of great importance, that even when the pandemic has passed, we will still have to deal with the burden of tackling these chronic diseases which by all accounts are here to stay,” he said.
