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| April 2007 |
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Nigeria gets down to business about HIV/AIDSOnche OdehLagos: A plan to guide the private sector’s response to the
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Onche Odeh |
The giant West African nation has the largest population in Africa. Roughly one out of every six people living on the African continent is a Nigerian.
Just under five percent of Nigeria's population, or five out of every 100
people in Nigeria, are HIV positive. There are at least three million Nigerians living
with HIV/AIDS, according to a 2006 report published by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations' AIDS programme, or UNAIDS.
Although AIDS statistics can be disputed, it would appear that this makes
Nigeria one of the top three countries with largest absolute number of
infections (as opposed to a percentage of the population) in the world,
after India and South Africa, according to a report from the international
medical charity, Avert. Out of every 100 people living with HIV/AIDS in the
world, ten are from Nigeria alone, says USAID.
While Nigeria's HIV infection rate lags behind the epicentre of the epidemic in
southern Africa, where countries such as South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia have the world's highest rates of
infection, there is no room for
complacency: Nigeria's sexually-transmitted diseases/HIV blood survey held
every two years estimates that over half the new HIV infections are among 15
to 25 year old age group.
The country's economy has been hard hit at the loss of working-age adults to
the disease, says Olusina Falana of the Nigerian Business Coalition
Against AIDS (NIBUCAA). Concerned at the loss of young working adults to a
preventable virus, the business coalition held a workshop in February in the
city of Lagos, the business capital in southwestern Nigeria. By March, the
coalition announced a draft business plan for coping with AIDS in the
workplace.
Mr Falana said he was optimistic that the plans would be fully implemented
among participating companies by 2011. The business plan to cope with
HIV/AIDS in the workforce "would eventually become a living and frequently
used document by businesses in Nigeria," Falana said.
But more companies need to participate. There are plans to triple the number
of companies involved in the coalition, which is dominated by banks,
multinational oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil and Total, beer
companies such as Guinness, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Glaxo
SmithKline, and the MTN cellphone company. However, small businesses often
lack the ability to conduct HIV and AIDS education in the workplace, as
advocated by the proposal.
Corporate Nigeria’s realisation that AIDS presented significant economic
perils – and that the workplace was an ideal place to reach reluctant
people - began in 2003, after president and former military dictator
Olusegun Obasanjo met with and warned some of the country's top business
people. After all, employed people spend a third of their lives at work,
notes the AIDS Control in Companies in Africa (ACCA) programme.
Consequently, some of the 35 companies belonging to the coalition have made
tentative steps, establishing workplace policies on HIV and AIDS. Few
company clinics offer routine testing and diagnosis of the virus and private
medical aids often specifically exclude coverage for the complicated and
expensive regime of anti-retroviral drugs which need to be taken precisely
on time every day. For example, a prominent food and drinks manufacturer,
Cadbury Nigeria, is considered to have a good workplace policy on HIV/AIDS
but services provided in the clinic in its factory complex excludes HIV/AIDS
blood tests to diagnose the disease. The factory clinic also does not
provide workers infected with AIDS with the life-saving anti-retroviral
medicines which, although they often come with strong side-effects, are
considered the best treatment worldwide for slowing down the progression of
the disease.
Cadbury company medical advisor Dr Dokun Adedeji, explained that the clinic in the factory complex lacked the test facilities and that treatment of AIDS-infected staff with anti-retroviral drugs were too expensive for them to manage. Dr Adedeji noted that the company did however refer staff to other, privately-operated clinics, for such services. He made it clear that the company deliberately excludes HIV testing as part of its employment criteria and has not laid-off any staff for testing positive to the virus, so there is no risk to job-seekers.
Meanwhile, if businesses become more involved, it could fill a desperately
needed gap in the health services. According to an Oxfam research paper from
2003, Nigeria's healthcare has deteriorated over the last two decades
because of military instability and corruption. Large parts of the country
lack even basic healthcare provision, making it difficult to establish HIV
testing and prevention services such as those for the prevention of
mother-to-child transmission. Sexual health clinics providing contraception
and testing and treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases, which
make people vulnerable to developing HIV/AIDS via sex without a condom, are
also few and far between.
Professor Babtunde Oshotimehin of Nigeria’s National Agency for Control of
AIDS said the business plan must be encouraged. Oshotimehin. who spoke in an
interview at the end of a meeting with state AIDS agencies in Rivers State
in the oil-rich south of the country, said NACA
would intensify efforts to persuade the private sector to commit resources
and time to combating HIV and AIDS.
More information:
The HIV/AIDS framework is due to be adopted by Nigerian Business Coalition
Against AIDS (NIBUCAA) companies later in 2007. Falana said the business
plan was supported by the German Technical Cooperation, known in its
original language as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
or GTZ, a private international enterprise for sustainable development owned
by the German government and funded by the German taxpayer. Falana
specifically thanked the AIDS Control in Companies in Africa (ACCA)
programme run by the GTZ. Credit: www.wfsj.org
* Onche Odeh, a science journalist with the Daily Independent newspaper in
Lagos, was part of the Nigerian Business Coalition Against AIDS
(NIBUCCA) group that reviewed the draft business plan. Mr Odeh, a member of
the World Federation of Science Journalists’ peer-to-peer mentoring
programme, writes here in his personal capacity. He can be contacted by
email on odehbishop@yahoo.com
Nigerian Business Coalition Against AIDS (NIBUCCA): www.nibucaa.org
Journalists against AIDS: www.nigeria-aids.org
AVERT: www.avert.org/aids-nigeria.htm
AIDS Control in Companies in Africa: http://www.acca-toolbox.org/
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