From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), on Monday, revealed that four key population groups in Nigeria are responsible for recent rise in new HIV infections.
A data on mode of HIV transmission released by NACA in Abuja, indicated that never married uncircumcised females and circumcised males aged between 19 to 31 years are responsible the new infections.
Others are female sex workers, and men who have sex with men. These four key population groups account for about 91 per cent of all new infections among adults in recent times, the agency said.
NACA Director General, Dr. Gambo Aliyu, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, that from the Mode of Transmission study confirmed that there was a significant flip in new infections as against the previous study that indicated otherwise.
He explained that the study which focused on identifying the sources of new HIV infections in the country was first conducted in 2009, and the recent one was conducted using an updated model known as the Incidence Pattern Model.
This, he added, was done to support efforts geared towards preventing new HIV infections using information that was accurate and clearly show where new infections are occurring and among which population group.
He noted that data from the 2018 Nigeria AIDS Indicator Impact Survey (NAIIS) supplied most of the information on population size and characteristics used for the study, adding that the key population size, prevalence rate for key populations and the number of new infections by state spread were estimated from the recent key population study.
The NACA boss further explained these key population groups which represent less than two per cent of the total population accounted for about 11 per cent of new infections, child infections due to mother-to-child transmission represent the second largest source of new infections, thus accounting for 22 per cent of all new infections.
“In many states, child infections account for even larger proportion, up to 50 per cent,” he said.
Dr. Aliyu said that Nigeria was working hard to close the gaps, but findings of the study would further help the Agency and its partners to redirect resources for maximum yields as it looks forward to attaining epidemic control with more targeted interventions.
He said the policy implications of the findings is that efforts would be made to target the vulnerable groups, the never married population, which is the largest source of new infections, and are mostly between the ages of 17 to 34 for females and 19-31 for men.
He said that special efforts would also be required to reach young population in schools, workplaces, gathering spots and through social media, and encourage women to attend anti-natal care especially in high prevalence states to eliminate new infections through newborns due to low coverage of PMTCT.
He, thus, suggested an increased efforts especially for the highest risk female sex workers and men that sleeps with men which has shown that, even though the population is small, prevalence remains high among sex workers in spite of high levels of reported condom use.