How Art Made the World the Day Images Were Bornã¢ââ
The occasion was the World’southward AIDS/HIV day, marked worldwide on Tuesday, terminal week. The venue was the floor of the Lagos State Business firm of Assembly, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria and the dramatis personae were the honourable members of the house.
A fellow member had made a remark about the rampaging Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, AIDS, and its twin blood brother, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, maxim they were spreading in the land like wild burn during the harmattan flavor.
In response, the Speaker, Lagos Business firm of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, disclosed that HIV was rampant even in his constituency, Epe.
Speaking further on the topic to mark World’southward AIDS/HIV 24-hour interval, Ikuforiji admitted that the people of Epe, like other communities in Nigeria were faced with the challenges of other ailments simply the scourge of HIV remained the most common.
The Speaker attributed it to lack of enlightenment on the part of the residents. According to him, a medical doctor who just returned from overseas drew his attention to the increasing number of Epe residents infected with HIV.
The Epe-based doctor told him that later establishing a close rapport with the people and they found it easier to discuss with him, he discovered that the most common illness in the expanse is HIV.
The doctor said about ane,000 people, both young and old, have tested HIV positive. A visit to Epe did not only confirm this assertion merely it was also an heart opener to the challenges faced by the Lagos State government and other agencies in taming the HIV scourge in Epe and its surround.
To terminate the scourge, at that place is need for thorough re-orientation. The people's hedonistic lifestyle demand to be changed for skillful, because a carefree lifestyle can only aggravate the problem. Just the major challenge is: are the people ready to change ?
For instance, a source effectually Epe General Hospital who confirmed the high charge per unit of HIV infection in Epe and its environs, attributed it to high rate of poverty, ignorance on the role of the populace and outdated traditional practices.
The source who does not desire his proper noun in print said: “There is high level of promiscuity among young girls in Epe. Majority of them get married at age 14, xv or 16. A fellow does not need much money to woo them. Because of the prevailing poverty, with picayune coin a man will always become young girls of his taste. Almost of them don't bother about didactics. They rarely become beyond secondary schoolhouse level earlier they go after men and eventually get married.â€
Co-ordinate to the source, medical personnel often embark on awareness campaigns in the surface area. Before HIV test is carried out, the people are counselled and those counselled are at liberty to take the test. Afterwards the examination, there is another round of counselling for the HIV positive, before they are recommended to Heart to Heart Centre in Epe General Hospital, for handling.
The source further said that majority of the people notwithstanding patronise traditional birth attendants and herbal practitioners. He said many residents of Epe are ignorant of modern day medicine. Simply a lot of awareness campaigns have been ongoing for the last few years for both the residents and the herbal practitioners.
The source said the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative in Nigeria, GHAIN, has been supportive in creating sensation about HIV not only in Epe but other General Hospitals in Lagos State.
At the Center to Centre Center of the Epe General Hospital, another source who does not want his proper noun mentioned disclosed that the Alausa, Ikeja-based GHAIN could not provide the centre with enough test kits.
Therefore, the available statistics cannot give accurate account of people living with HIV in the state or the area. Just the source confided in Metro that an average of 50 people tested positive on a weekly ground. The source added that most xx per cent increment was noticed every calendar week in the last six months.
Like the start source, he blamed the HIV scourge on promiscuity, loftier poverty level and outdated traditional practices.
“Most of the young people don’t get far in education, most of them know little about the disease. With N50 a boyfriend tin woo a daughter with soft drink and have canal cognition of her; almost a free catch.
“Most construction workers forth the Lagos-Lekki-Epe Expressway, from all the villages and towns in the area encounter in Epe on weekends to catch fun. Most of them engage in indiscriminate sex with young girls," the 2d source said
To stop the HIV scourge, Lagos State government in collaboration with GHAIN organised a workshop for traditional nascency attendants recently. Pregnant women are also mandated to undergo HIV tests to know their status before they can be registered for antenatal care. They are also enlightened that herbal practitioners cannot treat or cure HIV/AIDS as many of them errorneously believed.
“When people with HIV undergo counselling, at outset some of them would abscond. But when we see some of them again, we outset the counselling all over again and tell them the danger of their deportment,†he said
P.M.NEWS Metro spoke to Mrs. Esther Okuntimehin, 28, a HIV positive who discovered her status in 2007 when she was pregnant and later gave birth to a prepare of twins, both boys. Most astonishing is that her husband, a civil servant, and an indigene of Epe likewise equally the twins are HIV negative. Esther who finished her secondary education at Okota High Schoolhouse, Okota about Isolo in Lagos said her parents, especially her dad, did not believe initially that someone could contract HIV without being promiscuous. But ii and a one-half years subsequently, a confirmation test was carried out and the twins remained HIV negative. In fact, the twins are hale and hearty and they have started their uncomplicated education.
According to Ether, who underwent apprenticeship in tailoring and was formerly running a shop where she also sold beads and hats in Epe, the source of her HIV status has remained a mystery to her.
On stigmatization, she said, “nobody can discriminate against me. They don’t know my status. I told only my hubby, my begetter, mom (now late). For virtually three years, I accept not fallen sick. I take my drugs and follow my dr.'s communication.â€
Esther, the coordinator of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Epe, said her husband supports and encourages her, merely she never visited herbal practitioners.
“I plan to take more children in future, but certainly not now. I notwithstanding sleep with my man simply we apply condom. So far then proficient, condom has not failed us. We use electric current, not expired ones.
“I also believe in prayers. I am a member of Winners Chapel in Epe. I believe I have my life to live. HIV cannot cease me. I don’t believe HIV is a licence to death.
“I lecture members of my group. It was actually launched in 2004. From 25 members, we presently have lxx. This yr alone, 40 people joined the group. I advise people to go for counselling, know their condition and if they are positive, they should go to the hospital for treatment. In my grouping, nosotros have people of different age groups, like under thirty, 40 and fifty-fifty over 70. We also have a few of them who are prostitutes.
“This group enlightenment consignment has improved me in terms of non-formal teaching. I have attended up to four seminar/workshops in Nigeria. The training makes me realise I demand to tackle the stigmatization confronting people with HIV.
"I make them understand that HIV is not the end to life but another opportunity to reshape their lives and live a better life in society to face the challenges ahead of them,†she added.
The coordinator of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Epe could, still, not calculate what she has expended on drugs. “All the drugs I take are supplied costless of charge by the Lagos State government. I don’t even come around here (Epe General Infirmary) regularly. You are lucky to meet me here today that I take an enlightenment and counselling session with members of my group,†the Ilaje area of Ondo State born Esther stated.
â€"Moyo Fabiyi
Source: https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2010/12/07/taming-hiv-scourge-in-epe/
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