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IT is no longer news that there is a high level of
discrimination and stigmatisation against people living with human
immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) in Nigeria. What is however news is that
the scenario is killing more persons living with the virus than the
virusitself does.
Stigma happens when
others devalue a person or a group of people because they are associated with a certain disease, behavior or practice. And like a one-two punch, those who are stigmatised often experience discrimination in some fashions.
Experts say stigma and discrimination undermine prevention, treatment and care of people living with HIV; hinders those with the virus from telling their partners about their status, while threatening their access to healthcare. HIV-related stigma is also said to affect people’s ability to earn a living, making it even more difficult for them to lift themselves out of poverty.
But Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Friends Africa, Dr. Akudo Anyanwu-Ikemba, said there is no need for society to stigmatise and discriminate against PLWHs, especially in a work environment: “We know that there has been a common practice of firing people living with HIV during routine screening and pre-employment during employment process. These are things that are done as a result of fear; they are not done out of genuine reasons.”
He added: “I am saying that they (PLWHs) are not dangerous. There is a lot of research to that effect. People worry that they will get infected with HIV when they share a common toilet with those living with virus. Do you how that could happen? The person living with HIV would have had to have a lot of cuts on his/her genitals and sit on the toilet seat weeping with blood, and the (HIV negative) person coming to use the toilet would have had to have a lot of cuts as well, weeping with blood and rub themselves around on the toilet seat to get infected with the virus. What is the chance of that happening? So we emphasise things out of fear. One is not going to get HIV by working with somebody with the virus. We inflict so much pain on those living with virus and treat them as outcasts, instead of living closely with them. I have many people who are HIV positive as colleagues because of the work I do, and I have been working with them for years. It is a complete waste of time to stigmatise a group of people for no reason. We endanger their lives when we discriminate against them. Some of them refuse to go out for treatment because they do not want people to know that they are HIV positive. So, the biggest problem we are facing is stigma; stigma and discrimination are what are killing people. It (AIDS mortality) is no longer the issue ...”
Anyanwu-Ikemba, a PhD holder in Medicine from Tufts University and MA holder in International Public Health from Harvard University, said the realisation that PLWHs have reason to live has prompted Friends Africa, a pan-African organisation, to train small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria all over Africa. “We have trained over 2,700 SMEs to put in place health policies for their staff on AIDS, TB and malaria all over Africa,” the BSc holder in Molecular Biology from Lehigh University said.
“We do this because we know collectively, SMEs employ more than the larger corporation. So, there is an impact we can have at that level. Another reason is that SMEs do not adhere to some international standards like large companies so that they can get away with not putting in place policies. We find out that if employers treated their employees very well by providing them with good healthcare, that would afford the employees the opportunity to build incredible loyalty, increase productivity and value addition to their organisations. So, we encourage companies to put in place health policies to help their staff,” he explained further.
Anyanwu-Ikemba, whose organisation is in partnership with The Global Funds, said The Global Funds is not pulling out from Nigeria as alleged some years ago.
“In 2011, articles flew around … that funds from The Global Funds were being mismanaged. What actually happened was that because The Global Funds is transparent and wanted to promote that transparency, it decided to have forensic audit of itself, though its regular audit was being done by KPMG. Unfortunately, the forensic auditor, a Chinese man, went too far and decided to suspect things that were not actually dubious... The Global Funds has since fired the auditor because he did things without understanding cultural sensitivity, how things work locally. There are things one could interpret to be fraud but are not fraud because one does not understand how things work basically. For instance, it could be that he was not aware that there isn’t a form of transportation to certain areas unlike Europe where everything works. The auditor has never been to Africa before. So, he started misinterpreting things. Therefore, there was outcry of fraud from him. The Global Funds took what he said seriously and where there was need to take action, they took action. The Global Funds is not pulling out of Nigeria as it is fully committed to the country,” explained Anyanwu-Ikemba, who serves on the Board of Roll Back Malaria and the Nigerian arm of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF).
The healthcare advocacy expert urged Nigerians to take responsibility for their health, especially in the area of malaria, TB and HIV care. “These diseases are still with us, and everything we need to know to protect ourselves is also with us. We need to apply protective measures on malaria by making pregnant women and children under five to sleep under insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). We have the treatment for malaria now. Ten years ago, there was controversy over whether the treatments should be brought to Africa, as there was fear whether Africans can afford it. But right now, everything is here. We no longer have excuse. The information is there on how to prevent and treat malaria with artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs).
“As for TB, please do not ignore a cough that has lasted for over two weeks along with weight loss and night sweat. Please, do not stay in close proximity to someone who has cough; protect yourself and children from cough by sleeping somewhere else from someone who has cough; sleep in cross ventilated rooms and wear masks. One should get properly diagnosed and treated for TB on time.
“We should imitate the Japanese who always wear masks even when they have common cold. The Japanese took a very serious public health stand some years ago when they decided to wash their hands and take responsibility for their healthcare by not spreading to and receiving germs from others. It is a standard practice to wear masks in Japan. Even in the US, people do not carry a baby when they have cold. There is full disclosure and transparency about health conditions in the US. That is a sign of responsibility. As a country, we can adopt that as our policy. We should stop hiding our ailments from others.
“On HIV, the focus should be on stopping stigma and discrimination. That is what prevents people from getting their treatment; the treatment is available. We should accept people living with HIV. It is not a virus we would get infected with when in close proximity with others. The more we make people living with HIV feel better, the less they would have the need to close their doors to the world or die early because they are stigmatised,” the young global award winner said.
-Joseph Okoghenun
Share your thoughts....thanks!
Stigma happens when
others devalue a person or a group of people because they are associated with a certain disease, behavior or practice. And like a one-two punch, those who are stigmatised often experience discrimination in some fashions.
Experts say stigma and discrimination undermine prevention, treatment and care of people living with HIV; hinders those with the virus from telling their partners about their status, while threatening their access to healthcare. HIV-related stigma is also said to affect people’s ability to earn a living, making it even more difficult for them to lift themselves out of poverty.
But Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Friends Africa, Dr. Akudo Anyanwu-Ikemba, said there is no need for society to stigmatise and discriminate against PLWHs, especially in a work environment: “We know that there has been a common practice of firing people living with HIV during routine screening and pre-employment during employment process. These are things that are done as a result of fear; they are not done out of genuine reasons.”
He added: “I am saying that they (PLWHs) are not dangerous. There is a lot of research to that effect. People worry that they will get infected with HIV when they share a common toilet with those living with virus. Do you how that could happen? The person living with HIV would have had to have a lot of cuts on his/her genitals and sit on the toilet seat weeping with blood, and the (HIV negative) person coming to use the toilet would have had to have a lot of cuts as well, weeping with blood and rub themselves around on the toilet seat to get infected with the virus. What is the chance of that happening? So we emphasise things out of fear. One is not going to get HIV by working with somebody with the virus. We inflict so much pain on those living with virus and treat them as outcasts, instead of living closely with them. I have many people who are HIV positive as colleagues because of the work I do, and I have been working with them for years. It is a complete waste of time to stigmatise a group of people for no reason. We endanger their lives when we discriminate against them. Some of them refuse to go out for treatment because they do not want people to know that they are HIV positive. So, the biggest problem we are facing is stigma; stigma and discrimination are what are killing people. It (AIDS mortality) is no longer the issue ...”
Anyanwu-Ikemba, a PhD holder in Medicine from Tufts University and MA holder in International Public Health from Harvard University, said the realisation that PLWHs have reason to live has prompted Friends Africa, a pan-African organisation, to train small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria all over Africa. “We have trained over 2,700 SMEs to put in place health policies for their staff on AIDS, TB and malaria all over Africa,” the BSc holder in Molecular Biology from Lehigh University said.
“We do this because we know collectively, SMEs employ more than the larger corporation. So, there is an impact we can have at that level. Another reason is that SMEs do not adhere to some international standards like large companies so that they can get away with not putting in place policies. We find out that if employers treated their employees very well by providing them with good healthcare, that would afford the employees the opportunity to build incredible loyalty, increase productivity and value addition to their organisations. So, we encourage companies to put in place health policies to help their staff,” he explained further.
Anyanwu-Ikemba, whose organisation is in partnership with The Global Funds, said The Global Funds is not pulling out from Nigeria as alleged some years ago.
“In 2011, articles flew around … that funds from The Global Funds were being mismanaged. What actually happened was that because The Global Funds is transparent and wanted to promote that transparency, it decided to have forensic audit of itself, though its regular audit was being done by KPMG. Unfortunately, the forensic auditor, a Chinese man, went too far and decided to suspect things that were not actually dubious... The Global Funds has since fired the auditor because he did things without understanding cultural sensitivity, how things work locally. There are things one could interpret to be fraud but are not fraud because one does not understand how things work basically. For instance, it could be that he was not aware that there isn’t a form of transportation to certain areas unlike Europe where everything works. The auditor has never been to Africa before. So, he started misinterpreting things. Therefore, there was outcry of fraud from him. The Global Funds took what he said seriously and where there was need to take action, they took action. The Global Funds is not pulling out of Nigeria as it is fully committed to the country,” explained Anyanwu-Ikemba, who serves on the Board of Roll Back Malaria and the Nigerian arm of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF).
The healthcare advocacy expert urged Nigerians to take responsibility for their health, especially in the area of malaria, TB and HIV care. “These diseases are still with us, and everything we need to know to protect ourselves is also with us. We need to apply protective measures on malaria by making pregnant women and children under five to sleep under insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). We have the treatment for malaria now. Ten years ago, there was controversy over whether the treatments should be brought to Africa, as there was fear whether Africans can afford it. But right now, everything is here. We no longer have excuse. The information is there on how to prevent and treat malaria with artemisinin-based combination treatments (ACTs).
“As for TB, please do not ignore a cough that has lasted for over two weeks along with weight loss and night sweat. Please, do not stay in close proximity to someone who has cough; protect yourself and children from cough by sleeping somewhere else from someone who has cough; sleep in cross ventilated rooms and wear masks. One should get properly diagnosed and treated for TB on time.
“We should imitate the Japanese who always wear masks even when they have common cold. The Japanese took a very serious public health stand some years ago when they decided to wash their hands and take responsibility for their healthcare by not spreading to and receiving germs from others. It is a standard practice to wear masks in Japan. Even in the US, people do not carry a baby when they have cold. There is full disclosure and transparency about health conditions in the US. That is a sign of responsibility. As a country, we can adopt that as our policy. We should stop hiding our ailments from others.
“On HIV, the focus should be on stopping stigma and discrimination. That is what prevents people from getting their treatment; the treatment is available. We should accept people living with HIV. It is not a virus we would get infected with when in close proximity with others. The more we make people living with HIV feel better, the less they would have the need to close their doors to the world or die early because they are stigmatised,” the young global award winner said.
-Joseph Okoghenun
Share your thoughts....thanks!
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