New HIV injection
This should not be a licence for promiscuity since it is only for prevention The introduction of an anti-HIV injection, Lenacapaavir, into Nigeria, has naturally been well received. Although the
This should not be a licence for promiscuity since it is only for prevention
- Our Reporters
The introduction of an anti-HIV injection, Lenacapaavir, into Nigeria, has naturally been well received. Although the health authorities have been able to attract only 11,000 doses, Nigerians are said to have daily thronged health centres to access it.
This is good news somehow, since it deviates from the usual scepticism for such medications. When inoculation against common childhood diseases was taken to states in the country, the loud resistance and its effects still reverberate.
Advertisement
300x250
The scientific advancement is itself well received worldwide in view of the havoc tbe disease has wreaked, especially among tbe youthful population.
It is important that the Federal Government ramps up availability while the people are still enthusiastic. It was not too long ago when the humanimmunodeficiency virus (HIV) ravaged urban and rural areas in the country, spreading like bush fire in the harmattan season.
It took a lot to combat the spread. The new opportunity must not slip us by.
Read Also: Nigeria is better off than many years ago – 2baba
However, there is a lot of education and sensitisation to be done. First, there is the likelihood that the enthusiasm was driven by the hope that it cures. It does not. It is prophylactic, that is, it is for prevention. This point must be well driven home.
Second, since it has been established that the disease is mostly spread through unprotected sex, young people should be told that the injection is not an attraction to go wild. Sex outside the marital bounds is still an invitation to trouble.
Advertisement
300x250
Apart from HIV/AIDS, multiple partners have been indicated in studies of other sicknesses like cervical cancer. Young ones, through agencies of mass education and information, schools, traditional and religious institutions should be taught the virtues of chastity and abstinence.
It must be noted, too, that the injection is still new and studies are ongoing. There could be adverse effects yet unknown. There is therefore the need to tread softly.
The health institutions in Nigeria have the duty to subject it to local studies in view of environmental and nutritional factors.
It must be noted that HIV/AIDS is still a major disease in Nigeria. The last survey indicates that it is most prevalent in Cross River, Benue and Akwa Ibom states, and efforts to curb it should not be limited to the new injection.
Pending the time that it will be widely available, the old prevention methods, including the daily oral drugs and condom ought to be made sufficiently available, while harmful practices must be discouraged.
Besides, since the primary healthcare centres are the closest to the people and many are being rehabilitated by the Tinubu administration, they should serve as hubs for the distribution of the new injection.
We appreciate the efforts put into the research and production of the injection, but it is still a long shot from the final destination. The international science community has a lot to do, both in terms of prevention and cure of the dreaded disease.
Nigeria must not take the back seat in the interest of her people. Government should make adequate funds available for the production of needed drugs generally.
