The Effect Of Culture On The Prevalence Of Hiv Amoung Women In Nigeria

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 1

THE EFFECT OF CULTURE ON THE PREVALENCE OF HIV AMOUNG WOMEN IN

NIGERIA

Author’s Name

Institution

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 2

Question 1 (a)

The effect of culture on the Nigerian women is a critical factor that contributes to the high

numbers of victims living with HIV in Nigeria. Some of the implemented policies to combat HIV

prevalence in Nigeria are as follows.

The first policy comprises of the implementation of testing and counseling programs in

Nigeria in efforts to address the problems that have affected married women living in the country.

The second policy is about population distribution and control regarding HIV prevalence

in women especially in the process of childbearing responsibilities and their anatomy on the

adverse effects of sexual intercourse. According to Bibliometric analysis (NCBM) in Nigeria on

the trends of HIV in Nigeria from 1980 to 2006, it is evident that there was a rapid growth of HIV

due to their uneven population growth.

The third policy is on the use of contraceptives. Cultural practices in Nigeria hinder usage

of contraceptives, Ezeanolue explains that the use of contraceptives has not had a significant

impact on reducing cases of HIV, and thus prevalence in women is still higher in women than in

men (Ezeanolue et al., 2015).

Finally, Nigeria came up with a policy to facilitate education on stigma and discrimination

with the intent to allow women to seek help openly instead of suffering stigmatization. Culturally,

such matters have been kept muted, and this has led to higher prevalence in HIV rates among

women.

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Question 1(b) Critical Analysis of 4 Positives of Existing Policies

HIV counseling and testing according to the first policy have been shown to provide a vital

entry point in the limitation of HIV transmission. In Nigeria, the policy on the implementation of

HIV testing and counseling aims at increasing women participation.

The second policy regarding high population in Nigeria has enabled the government to

follow up on the demographic implications as well as HIV distribution within the country to reduce

HIV among women. Also, the government has seen it crucial to ensure HIV trends within the

country are well documented to provide proper strategies accordingly. Knowing the patterns in

rural and urban areas can help implement different approaches to combat HIV prevalence (Abah,

2014).

On the third policy on the use of contraceptives, it has shown to reduce HIV incidences

among women in the country and thus the need to push for this policy (Anthony et al., 2016).

Contraceptives such as condoms have had a significant effect on reducing HIV prevalence

especially in women and the government and non-governmental organizations in the country have

provided such contraceptives and educated women on their use to reduce the incidence.

Finally, stigma reduction strategies have been seen to reduce the barriers to HIV treatment,

testing, and adherence and have helped reduce HIV prevalence among women. The education

policy on stigma and discrimination seeks to address the cultural and social barriers that limit

access to services. Numerous studies such as (Odimegwu et al., 2017) showed that HIV infections

and deaths had decreased due to massive improvements in interventions such as stigma reduction.

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 4

Question 1(c) Critical Analysis of four Negatives of Existing Policies

First, is on the policy of testing and counseling, the strategy lacks an overall reception

among all the women in Nigeria. A study by (Amu et al., 2013) showed various barriers to HIV

testing and counseling in Nigeria included perceptions of HIV, marital status, level of education,

and ignorance. This has hindered the uptake for this policy and thus a failure on the policy.

On the second policy, demographic implications on HIV prevalence among women has

had limited effect on rural areas as seen between 2008 to 2010 among rural states in Nigeria for

women aged between 15 to 39 (Abah, 2014).

Thirdly, the use of contraceptives has received disapproval and in turn, has not helped

reduced HIV among Nigerian women. Culturally, contraceptives acquisition and usage are

hindered by cultural practices (Ankomah et al., 2013). These norms limited women’s opinion the

matters of sex as they were unable to advise their partners to use protection during coitus. Besides,

lack of education on the proper use of contraceptives such as condoms has not helped the case of

reducing HIV prevalence among women. In one of the studies on condom use, uneducated or those

with lower education levels failed to comply with healthcare guidelines and had a notion that

condom use reduces sexual pleasure (Ayoola et al., 2014). On the other hand, studies on this

policy of contraceptives and limitation of HIV among Nigerian women shows that 70% of HIV

infected people are still sexually active and the use of contraceptives is still questionable (Ezechi

et al., 2013).

Finally, the factor that profoundly affected the stigma reduction policy in Nigeria was their

beliefs and cultural stigmas against the teaching from awareness they received to reduce the spread

of HIV hence it profoundly contributed to the prevalence of HIV in Nigeria (Odimegwu et al.,

2017).

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 5

2. Analysis of Typical Intervention Approaches

The nation came up with a solution to reduce the spread of HIV in Nigeria. Some

interventions approaches were put in place to achieve the desired goal. The interventions include:

First is on the establishment of the Nigerian antiretroviral therapy (ART) program where

the analysis was made based on a strategy of the examination (Adejimi et al., 2017). The

antiretroviral therapy has helped reduce HIV prevalence significantly.

Secondly, projects such as the VISION project by the US Agency for International

Development (USAID) has helped women in Nigeria to increase the use of contraceptives and

access to HIV/AIDS services.

Thirdly, the reduction of the cost of provided complete HIV treatment together with the

supporting programs. The analysis was done by the primary stakeholder to see how many countries

need the help to acquire HIV treatment the outcome was got from each dedicated HIV treatment

site and the cost was shared among the powerful organization to achieve their goal.

Fourth, is on mass education on the stigma of HIV. There was considerable fear of people

living with HIV and how they were perceived in the society. The society, on the other hand, has

made it difficult for HIV-infected citizens by stigmatization and discrimination. Therefore, various

programs have been implemented to tackle this issue including media and awareness campaigns,

universal counseling, testing and treatment (Odimegwu et al., 2017).

Models

There were models that the agencies used in the analysis of the principles. Firstly, an

organization such as the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA) made studies on the

theories to show how cultural stigma in Nigeria affected the spread of HIV. Therefore, specific

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 6

representations into the above analysis were brought up by the country’s citizen such as the thought

of the disease as foreign-led to more diverse effects that led to her being among the top nations

affect by that HIV pandemic.

Secondly, the public perception about the condition with relation to their religious and

cultural practices is another mode that was analyzed to have increased the rate of HIV spread.

Thirdly, the dissemination of HIV infection news in social network also created awareness

among Nigerians and helped them protect themselves from sexual behavior change. The

knowledge also helped the Nigerian to stop their cultural beliefs and adapt to a clean life system.

(Ogbonna et al., 2016).

Positives of the Existing Interventions

Following the first intervention on ART program, there were positive effects to the

women. The NACA agencies in Nigeria showed that there was an increase in the number of women

who went for antiretroviral treatment from 2014 to 2016 (NACA Nigeria, 2017). Besides, there

were positive results on early ART intervention for victims, and one of the studies has shown that

ART retention programs could help decrease the effects of HIV (Dalhatu et al., 2016).

On the second interventions, non-organization involvement in HIV awareness and

prevention programs such as the VISION project has seen positives among women through

exposure to mass media programs on HIV prevention strategies to increase awareness.

Thirdly, free ART programs have helped increased HIV prevalence among women as well

as raise awareness to women who are yet infected. Also, various organizations stewarded by the

government has helped reach almost all the women in the country and provide treatment and

sensitization to HIV prevalence among women.

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 7

Finally, Mass education has played a significant role in creating awareness among women

in Nigeria and informing them about the importance of using contraceptives. Fourthly, study

agencies also had an opportunity to bring the awareness among the adolescence youth including

the support programs hence this helped in the treatment of HIV in Nigeria.

Negatives of Existing Interventions

However, some of these interventions methods fail to meet the standards necessary to

reduce the prevalence of HIV among Nigerian women.

On the intervention method of provision of ART drugs, various studies identified non-

adherence to the AART drugs due to the cost of therapy, side effects of the drugs and non-

availability of ARV drugs. Also, there was a reported stigma for those in ART programs (Dalhatu

et al., 2016).

On the intervention programs by non-governmental organizations, problems were

accessing a large number of women especially those in rural areas where mass media was

ineffective. Also, cultural interference hindered this project outreach. Stigma dominated Nigeria

and proved to be a significant hindrance to HIV treatment and preventions among women in

Nigeria as shown by the relevant studies and theories (Dahlui et al., 2015; Monjok et al., 2009).

Although the reduction of ART programs to women yielded positives results, the third

intervention program faced significant issues. Despite ARV drugs being free, there are hidden

costs for treating HIV, especially for the poor citizens. Caring for HIV patients included healthy

diets, constant visits to clinics, which cost money as well as noon-food budget. With over 48.8%

Nigerians living under the poverty line, this intervention becomes problematic and thus a burden

and hindrance to effective HIV prevalence eradication among women.

HIV PREVALENCE AMONG NIGERIAN WOMEN 8

Finally, mass education on HIV still faces challenges mainly due to cultural norms in the

country. Most women in the country still face discrimination and domestic violence as an accepted

norm, and this has led to further prevalence. Despite the education provided by the government,

mass media and non-governmental organizations, women still suffer from HIV infections.

Recommendations

In conclusion, sexual transmission of HIV among women in Nigeria is still another primary

problem. The government should look into that and set laws to protect women from any sexual

harassment. The HIV stigma should also be reviewed to educate people on accepting other

people’s status and offer care and assistance to those affected. As stated by several research

agencies as the NACA and UNICEF that stigma was a hindrance to voluntary testing and

counseling the nation should focus on that to provide public awareness against this cultural

practices. All citizens need to be educated ways to prevent themselves from being infected and

how to avoid infecting others. The world health organization also recommends that the concerned

staff should ensure adherence to the guidelines set for treatment and prevention programs.

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The effect of culture on the prevalence of hiv amoung women in nigeria

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