HIV/AIDS Patients Allege Stigmatization by Rivers Health Workers in Nigeria

Scores of people living with HIV/AIDS in Rivers State have accused health workers in government health institutions of championing their stigmatization.

Speaking to Vanguard, Mr. Boma Wakama of a non-governmental organisation, NGO, said: "The painful part of it is that those who discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS openly are workers in health facilities in the state. It is painful because these are people who are not supposed to discriminate against us."

He added that the practice had destabilised his members as they now shun drugs in health centres.

At a gathering arranged in partnership with the state Action Committee on AIDS, RIVSACA, Wakama said the situation was frightening because the health officers, who should offer succour, were now enemies of the sick.

He said: "Our people are afraid to come out and identify themselves as people living with HIV/AIDS due to stigmatization. Even your family members and close friends try to avoid you as soon as they know you tested positive."

Wakama urged the state government to educate its health workers on the need to stop mocking them as people living with the virus as some of them are at a loss on what to do in this regard

He said: "Most of our people now go far away from Rivers State to seek counseling and medical attention due to the attitude of these health workers towards them. Government should educate them on this. It is very painful."

Wakama called on the state House of Assembly to make laws that will make it an offence for people to stigmatize HIV/AIDS patients.

Programme Officer of RIVSACA, Mrs. Grace Ebere, however, said that the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the state had dropped from 7.5 per cent in 2008 to 6.0 per cent in 2010, adding that the scourge was nothing to be scared of again in the state.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!