WHEN Mrs Zacheaus gave birth to her first child shortly after she got married, her heart bubbled with joy as friends and well-wishers trooped in to congratulate her. But her joy was shattered three months after when the bundle of joy died ‘mysteriously’, bringing her untold pains and sorrow.
Shortly after the incident, she took another shot at having a child and succeeded within a space of time. Less than three years after savouring the joy of motherhood, tragedy struck again and robbed her of her joy. After the death of her second baby, she realised that she was living with the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), and it was the reason her children were dying.
She said: “I discovered my status in 2007. I was married then. I knew about it after I gave birth to my second child and the child was not growing. He was three years and emaciating.
“When they carried out the test, I was positive, the baby was positive but my husband was negative. I eventually lost the baby. The first child I had before then died after three months.
“After losing the other baby, I believed that it so happened because God did not want me to suffer. I used to see people nursing HIV-positive children and it is hell doing that, especially in a situation where the father had abandoned the woman and the child.”
Another victim, Ibiom, said it is distressing carrying the burden of living with the virus alongside her child. Like Zacheaus, she also discovered her status in 2007 as a married woman. “I had a daughter before I discovered my status,” she said. “My daughter is also HIV-positive, but my husband is negative. My daughter became positive through breastfeeding.
“It was distressing to be diagnosed with such a health challenge at the earliest stage of one’s marriage. Incidentally, I didn’t have children on time, and three years after, I had one, I was found to be positive. It was a period we were supposed to be enjoying our marriage but that was the time everything crumbled.
“It was like living in hell. In fact, I almost took my life. It got to a stage that I bought a poison to terminate my life, but when I looked at my daughter, my thought changed.”
Lamenting the quality of treatment they receive at their centres, Ibiom said: “We are no longer getting the kind of treatment we were getting before. At times you go to the clinic and they tell you to come back because the drugs are not sufficient. The centre is often rowdy because of the population of people coming for treatment.
“My challenge now is that my husband’s job is not going fine. This has affected our feeding and you know we need to eat well.
“Besides, my daughter risks not writing her WAEC exams because there is no money to pay for her. This is compounding my situation because she is very brilliant. She came first when she participated in a competition involving 34 schools. I need help because I don’t want this to affect her health. “
For Bisade, it is still a puzzle that she and her baby became HIV-positive. “I knew about my status in 2008,” she said. “I was married then and had a child. My baby is also HIV-positive, but I can’t explain how she got infected. Both of us go for our drugs on a monthly basis. It is emotionally and psychologically disturbing to be going for treatment with one’s child.
“Other than my husband, it is only my mother who is aware of our status. She wept when she heard about it, but there was nothing she could do beyond that. Government should look into our issue and help us.”
A male respondent, Mr Idowu, is not living with the virus, but he lost his wife to the menace in 2011. Now he is saddled with the task of taking care of the son who was infected through the late wife.
He said: “I knew about my son’s status shortly after he was born in 2011. He was just four months old when the mother died. Three months after his birth, the doctor said we should bring him back after three
months for his blood to be screened because there were signs he had the virus too.
When they screened him, they found that he is also living with the virus. He has been on medication since then and he is seven years old now. It is challenging taking care of him as I have to make sure he gets and takes his medication all the time.
“It is time consuming and energy sapping, but I cannot abandon my son. I cannot reject him because of a problem that he is innocent about. Nobody else knows about his status apart from me.”
Recalling how the wife died, Idowu said: “She fell sick and kept emaciating. When we went to the general hospital at Oluyide in Mushin, they carried out a test on both of us and found that my wife was living with the virus while I was not. Before they told us about the outcome of the result, they had counselled us and allayed our fears about the challenge.
“They prepared our minds to accept each other in love and assured that once a victim sticks to the medication, he or she would be fine. So, when they eventually said she was positive, I accepted it with equanimity, although I felt sad. We were subsequently referred to IDH Yaba, where she was admitted and later died.”
How our husbands reacted after we tested positive
Recalling her husband’s reaction after she and her daughter tested positive to the virus, Ibiom said: “My husband left the house for three years after knowing about our status. I prayed for his return, reminding God how I had been faithful to my husband and that I didn’t know how I became HIV-positive. We have had another child after that and the baby is negative.”
Zacheaus recalled that after test result showed that she had tested positive, all she could see was darkness and an end to her blissful marriage.
Contrary to her expectation, she said, “my husband was not hostile to me. In fact, he was even the one calming me down when I said it was finished. They counselled us and assured us that if I should take in again, the baby would be negative.
“I told my husband that he should go his way so that I would not disturb his life with my condition, but he said no. Interestingly, we are from different parts of the country. To the glory of God, I have four children today and they are all negative.
“I don’t have any stigmatization issue around me. My status is not even known to my family members. It is only between me and my husband.”
Like the earlier respondents, Bisade said while she was seriously losing sleep over her status and that of her daughter, “my hubby allayed my fears and advised me to take my medication.
“He knows that I am not the type that flirts around. I probably got infected while treating my finger nails or treating hair. It is very painful to be told that one is HIV-positive, but life must go on.”
Worries about donors’ withdrawal
Some of the victims who spoke with our correspondent feared that there could be massive death of people living with HIV if donors withdraw completely from supporting the treatment in the country.
Bisade said about six victims at her treatment centre died within a week and expressed fears that a large number of infected persons would die if donors withdraw.
“It will affect many of us if donors withdraw because there is no care or attention for us locally. Many colleagues are dying. Just last week, six people died where I receive treatment. Many are dying because the drugs supplied are not enough to go round.”
Zacheaus also expressed similar fears, saying: “I have heard that foreign donors are planning to stop funding Nigeria, and right now, some centres have begun to ask for money to treat people.
“Many people will die if support is withdrawn except they make the drugs affordable for the less privileged. Before, we used to get some nutrient capsules and multivitamins, but that is no more given to us. It is only Septrin they give now. I learnt that some private hospitals are selling the anti-retroviral drugs for N15,000.
“Even if the foreign donors are pulling out, the Federal Government should make the treatment affordable for the less privileged. Even with the drugs given to us free of charge, not many people are feeding well.
“Before, in some support groups’ meetings, they would bring food, especially for the babies, to gain weight. But that doesn’t happen again.
“Today, items meant for HIV-positive people are being diverted. I attended a meeting where relief materials were to be given to HIV-positive people, but when we got there, those of us who were HIV-positive were not up to 10. Others were HIV-negative people who were family members of the organisers.”
On her part, Ibiom said: “I fear that, that would be the end of the road if they withdraw their support.
Number of pregnant women living with HIV rises
In the past five years, an annual health sector report and estimates statistics obtained from National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) by The Nation showed that the number of pregnant women living with HIV has been on the increase. A total of 873,000 pregnant women have been officially recorded to be living with HIV within this period.
In 2013, 159,000 (18.99 per cent) of the pregnant women in the country were living with HIV. The figure rose by 5,000 in 2014, jerking it up to 164,000 (19.59). In 2015, the figure increased to 168,000 (20.07 per cent) with an addition of 4,000 fresh cases. The number of infected pregnant women became higher in 2016 with additional 3,000 cases, making the total figure 171,000 (20.43 per cent) that year. Last year, it rose to 175,000 (20.90 per cent), 4,000 higher than was recorded in 2016.
Infected children’s death rate soars
The country’s plan to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS by 2020 will be a mirage if the official statistics obtained by The Nation are anything to go by. The menace has rather been on the rise instead of declining.
The statistics showed that a total of 4,141 children have died of the menace between 2013 and 2014. The 2017 statistics was yet to be provided at the time data was obtained. The data showed that 672 children representing 16.22 per cent of the total death rate died in 2013. This increased by 23 deaths in 2014 to 695 deaths, representing 16.78 per cent of total number of children that died in the period under consideration.
In 2015, a total of 857 children, representing 20.69 per cent, died. The 2015 figure was higher than 2014 statistics by 162.
The 2016 death rate soared more than 100 per cent above the 2015 figure as a total of 1,899 cases, representing 45.85 per cent, were recorded. The 2016 figure was 1,042 higher than the 2015 data.
Pediatrician speaks
Despite official statistics showing that mother to child transmission is on the rise, a pediatrician, Dr Nkiru David, believes it is on the decline.
He said: “There is a lot of gap in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV because Nigeria makes up 10 per cent of the global burden of gap in PMCT. But we are much better than we used to be. So, the number of children being exposed is less.
“What Nigeria has adopted now is test and treat. So, anybody who is infected should be on treatment. Infected pregnant women should be managed by experienced individuals during labour and delivery.
“After delivery, the baby should be on anti-retroviral drugs for the first six weeks to protect the baby irrespective of whether the woman is breast feeding or has opted for substitute.
“After six weeks, we usually take blood sample to test for HIV infection in the child. We get much fewer number of HIV infected children if the mothers go through PMTCT and the child had anti-retroviral prophylaxis in the first six weeks of life.”
Explaining why a man may be HIV negative when the wife and the baby are positive, David said: “It is not a must that when people have sex somebody must get infected. But if uninfected person constantly has unprotected sex with an infected person, after some time, he would also become infected. This is why we are saying that everybody should get tested and also know the partner’s status too.
“Where one of the couple is infected and they want to have children, they should see a gynaecologists who is experienced so that they know how to go about it.”
Enumerating the challenges that come with nursing an infected child, she said: “Having a child or anybody who has a chronic health condition is a challenge. The child has to go to hospital regularly and take drugs on a daily basis. It is not an easy thing, especially for a child who may not understand why they have to take the drugs.
“Taking the child to hospital and going for the tests are big challenges aside from the emotional challenge that one has an HIV infected child. There are economic challenges coming to the hospital and doing some tests. There are emotional challenges and psychological challenges. I know that in our country there is still a lot of stigma and discrimination against people who are positive.”
On the withdrawal of foreign donors from HIV treatment in the country, the pediatrician said: “It was an emergency funding support that the funders were giving us, but they have given us this for more than 10 years. The government is now supposed to take up responsibility and provide the needed funding.
“The government is trying its best. But as foreign donors withdraw, the Federal Government should step up its efforts. If there is no support, people may begin to pay for their drugs. We hope we won’t get to that level.”