Two South-south states are among the three states with the highest HIV prevalence rate in Nigeria.
Akwa
Ibom tops the prevalence rate chart with about 5.5 per cent of its
residents living with the virus. It is followed by Benue which has a
prevalence rate of 5.3 per cent while Rivers is third with a prevalence
rate of 3.8 per cent.
The details were contained in the Nigerian
HIV/AIDs Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) whose result was released
last week in Abuja.
The result shows that about one per cent of Nigerians (1.9 million people) are currently living with HIV/AIDs.
This
figure, according to the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, moves
Nigeria from second to the fourth position among countries battling the
HIV epidemic.
With an earlier estimate of about 3.2 million
people living with HIV, Nigeria was second after South Africa which
ranks first with about 7.1 million people living with HIV.
Announcing
the NAIIS result in Abuja on Thursday, the Director General of the
National Agency for the Control of AIDs (NACA), Sani Aliyu, said the
percentage of People Living with HIV among adults is 1.4 per cent (1.9
per cent among females and 0.9 per cent among males.)
The
National AIDS survey was launched in June 2018 to determine the true
distribution of HIV and AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C in the
country.
The survey reached around 220,000 people in about 100,000 households and was conducted between July and December 2018.
According to the survey, the South-south zone of the country has the highest HIV prevalence, at 3.1 per cent among adults.
HIV prevalence is also high in the North-central zone with 2.1 per cent and in the South-east zone, 1.9 per cent.
The
three regions with lower prevalence rate are the South-west – 1.2 per
cent, North-east – 1.1 per cent, and the North-west zone – 0.6 per cent.
The
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that attacks cells in the
immune system, which serves as the body’s natural defence against
illnesses.
Though the popular way of contracting this virus is
through vaginal or anal sex, there are other ways. These include sharing
of needles or syringes, piercings, tattoos, blood transfusions, semen
(cum), or vaginal fluids into open cuts or sores on the body. HIV
currently has no cure but can be prevented and managed with proper
medication.
Below is the full list of states and their HIV prevalence rate.
I converted the tables to show prevalence in descending order for ease of reading. USE THESE:
States HIV prevalence (%)
Akwa Ibom 5.5
Benue 5.3
Rivers 3.8
Taraba 2.9
Anambra 2.4
Abia 2.1
Cross River 2.0
Enugu 2.0
Nassarawa 2.0
Bayelsa 1.9
Delta 1.9
Edo 1.9
Imo 1.8
Ogun 1.6
Plateau 1.6
FCT 1.6
Lagos 1.4
Gombe 1.3
Adamawa 1.2
Borno 1.2
Kaduna 1.1
Ondo 1.1
Kwara 1.0
Kogi 0.9
Osun 0.9
Oyo 0.9
Ebonyi 0.8
Ekiti 0.8
Niger 0.7
Kano 0.6
Kebbi 0.6
Bauchi 0.5
Zamfara 0.5
Sokoto 0.4
Yobe 0.4
Jigawa 0.3
Katsina 0.3
HIV prevalence according to Geopolitical zones
Zones HIV prevalence (%)
South-South 3.1
North-Central 2.1
South-East 1.9
South-West 1.2
North-East 1.1
North-West 0.6
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