Inter-state and border drivers have been urged to ensure proper use of condom to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDS).
This was during the HIV awareness programme by the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA) for members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Seme border Motor Park. It was in collaboration with Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR).
The event was the second to the last among the 10 selected clusters in Lagos for LSACA officials to counsel participants on the possible risks of HIV and how it could be prevented and managed if contracted.
The principal investigator for the project, Dr Zaidat Musa, said part of the rationale behind the programme was to study HIV prevalent among road transport workers in Lagos State and the associated factors that dispose them to HIV.
Dr Musa asked those who are positive what they did that made them positive, their life style and the risk factors. To him, ‘that’s what the study is about and it is an initiative by the LSACA in collaboration with NIMR’.
She added: “We did a health talk about HIV; how you can prevent it; how you can live positively and where you can access treatment. We also administered questionnaires to them on what are the things you need to do? Proper/correct use of condom are demonstrated, because at times people use condoms wrongly. So, the demonstration was to show them how correctly they have to wear a condom. The nature of the transport work tend to expose the drivers to sexual diseases because some may have multiple sexual partners
“Because they move around a lot, they have multiple sexual partners. From the study, no one can prevent them from having multiple sexual partners, but we can only tell them to reduce the number of sexual partners they have. Per adventure they do not listen to that advice, the best we can tell them is to use condoms because change is a very difficult thing. Although we said it during the health talk that one must maintain a stable sexual partner, but in their own case because they move from one location to another they can’t do that, then the best we can tell them is to use condoms regularly.”
Representative of LSACA Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oluseyi Temowo, Olushina Olumide Nataniel, said Lagos State is concerned with eradicating the virus by the year 2030 and it is on that premise that the agency was moving around the nooks and crannies of the state to do free testing and counselling the people. “We want to look at the NURTW members and formed an evidence base programme. It was on that premise that we actually arranged with them free counseling and screening for the Seme Border axis and we are forming our data from here.
“We’ve gone to other branches in Lagos. We want to focus on the NURTW first, although we move from one population to the other; we are hoping to do for the market women later. We have done for the motorcyclists. The law is in existence to take its course on anyone, who stigmatises people living with HIV. Lagos State House of Assembly has done that for the agency in the past and anyone caught would face the music,”he said.
The NURTW chairman, Seme Branch, Alhaji Mustapha Dauda Awopeju, thanked the state government for the initiative, stating that it was a welcomed idea, but not the first time such programme would be brought to the park. “I am happy when I did the test and was cleared negative. I implore other people to come out and check their status, if you’re positive it isn’t the end of the world as they’ve told us, several people live with HIV and they still go about their businesses normally,”he said.
