From 1986 till
date, I for one as well as most other Nigerians have lived in perpetual fear of
the unknown and the dreaded consequences of possibly contracting the Human
Immune deficiency virus and the Acquired Immune deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS).
Back then, we were
young stars in our early senior high school period at the very peak of enjoying
our youth when from the blues, scientists bombarded the World with the
discovery of HIV/Aids. Ever since, the World has never been the same even as
most of us have resorted to either abstinence from sex or highly protected
sexual relationship for those who are daring.
I have had
firsthand experience of meeting some very close friends who lived positively
with HIV and eventually lost the battle of their lives to the Acquired immune
deficiency syndrome. As can be seen from the above, I am not one among those
cynics who doubt the authenticity, existence and potency or otherwise of these
health challenges facing members of the global community.
In my well over two
decades of active journalism practice, I have made creation of awareness of the
validity of HIV/Aids among Nigerian readers as the major focus of my media
advocacy. Today, I have decided to reflect on the effort made so far by the
scientists and other researchers to find a cure to the disease and also to
highlight the less than impressive response of the Nigerian government through
the Federal ministry of Health which has not actively supported effort of the
home grown researchers on the possible cure for HIV/Aids.
This piece is
inspired also by some positive results of some medical researchers in the
international community towards finding lasting cure to HIV/Aids.
Why is this
columnist so much interested in raising awareness on this important health
development, you may ask? Well, I have watched two close male school mates and
friends die from the effects of not knowing their status and subsequently
failing to begin early treatment which resulted in these fatalities that have
left a big emotional gap in my sub-conscious.
In my very active
days as a reporter covering the health beat in Abuja for The Guardian, I took
very meticulous interest in reporting developments concerning efforts made by
home grown medical researchers on finding effective cure to HIV/Aids. I must
confess straight away that I am not happy that the federal government plays too
much politics with the issues around the area of encouraging local research on
HIV/Aids but is interested in going cap- in- hand to international donor
agencies in search of the elusive donor-funded financial lifeline to
treat/HIV/Aids patients who have come out to be tested.
Years back when
some claimants to cure of HIV/Aids came up, the federal government fought hard
to discourage and paint these Nigerians as fake which made them (the claimants)
to go back to their cocoons and refused to tender their findings for
peer-review and scientific verification. The result is that indigenous medical
researches on HIV/Aids are not known to be well funded unlike what obtains in other
developed climes where even private sector funded effort are galvanized towards
finding cure to Hiv/Aids.
I am not by any
stretch of imagination dismissing the fact that Nigeria has a national policy
on HIV/Aids but the issue is that officials of Government are known to be
averse to supporting serious work of scientific research but are ever so
willing to receiving foreign financial assistance because these officials have
developed the lazy “food-is-ready” kind of tendency of always going cap- in
-hand to beg the international community and much of these fund attracted end
up in the private pockets of these officials of the Federal Ministry of Health.
A query my research
assistant Miss. Nwamaka Asuzu typed on the internet and specifically a visit to
the website of www.Nigeria.unfpa.org
came up with a document posted on October 2009 titled the National policy on
HIV/Aids of Nigeria in which only passing comments were made regarding the all
important issue of what the Nigerian government is doing to support locally
based and home-grown research on effective cure to HIV/Aids. From this document
what is closest to government’s avowed commitment to battle the scourge of
HIV/Aids through local research by Nigerian qualified scientists is the mention
of the supervisory role of the Federal ministry of Health to oversight the
discharge of the mandate by the Health-related agencies in the area of research
on HIV/Aids.
In the document on
the national policy on HIV/Aids jointly signed by Professor John Idoko for the
National Agency for the Control of Aids and Alex Ogundipe who was identified as
the Director of policy and strategy, the federal government stated thus; “The
Activities of all diagnostic medically-related Laboratories as well as other
health care institutions and practitioner’s in the country shall be monitored
and regulated by appropriate government-approved agencies to ensure conformity
with the guidelines relating to their professional practice”.
But the reality
that several persons have died as a result of HIV/Aids stares me in the face
daily even as I am worried that my home government rather than pursue
comprehensive national policy on research on cure to HIV/Aids, has dissipated
effort and scarce resources in the purchase of condoms for family planning. The
Federal Government feels strongly that population issue far outweighs the
critical issue of finding cure to HIV/Aids. I may be wrong and I am willing to
be so corrected.
Specifically, the
media reported on Friday August 31, 2012 that the federal government has
approved $11.5m for the procurement of condoms and family planning commodities.
The Director of
Family Health in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Bridget Okoeguale, said
this in an interview with Punch correspondent in Abuja at the 47th National
Council Meeting of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria.
The truth is that
even with the Aids break through announced at the recent international Aids
Conference in the United States of America on possible cure to a strain of
HIV/Aids, several thousands of people in the developing World Still die from
complications related to HIV/Aids.
From the website of
www.aids.org the United Nations
Agency on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS) estimates that as at December 2000 that there were
36.1 million people living with HIV/Aids (34.7million adults and 1.4 million
children under age 15).
According to this
reputable United Nations Agency, since the epidemic began, an estimated 21.8
million people have died of AIDS (17.5 million adults and 4.3 million children
under 15).
An estimated 5.3
million new HIV infections occurred in 2000. During 2000, HIV-and
AIDS-associated illness caused deaths of an estimated 3 million people,
including 500,000 children under the age of 15.
In the United
States: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
there are between 800,000 and 900,000 people living with HIV. Through December
2000, a total of 774,467 cases of AIDS have been reported to the CDC; of this
number, 448,060 persons (representing 58% of cases) have died.
On July 26th, 2012,
the Nation Newspaper’s editorial celebrated what it calls “Aids break through”,
just as the Newspaper reported that the World is on the verge of a significant
breakthrough in the fight against Hiv/Aids.
The Nation
newspaper of Nigeria reported that Timothy Ray Brown of San Francisco, United
States of America, who is known in medical circles as the “Berlin patient”
declared “I am HIV negative. I am cured of the Aids virus.” Brown, 46, year
old, was diagnosed as HIV positive 18 years ago and began anti-retroviral
treatment.
His case was
complicated by acute myeloid leukemia which was diagnosed in 2006. It was this
diagnosis that has resulted in the possibility of a cure for Aids. His
physician, German hematologist Gero Hutter, introduced Brown to a revolutionary
treatment for leukemia that turned out to be cure for both diseases.
Salutary as this
isolated positive medical breakthrough is, the Nigerian government must look
inwards for effective, efficient and good cure for HIV/AIDS that is ravaging
the younger populations of Nigeria because a nation with a healthy younger
population is a nation that will surely become great and developed if the human
resources are properly harnessed for productivity. Moreover, Nigeria's domestic
economy will gain significantly if we eventually develop effective cure to
Hiv/Aids locally.
*
Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, blogs@www.huriwa@blogspot.com.
4/9/2012
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