By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Oct 9 1996 (IPS)

A recent order by a Nigerian Military State Administrator that people with HIV/AIDS should be confined has sparked little public outcry since most Nigerians still lack adequate knowledge on how the disease is spread.

Navy Captain Joe Kalu-Igboamah, newly-appointed Military Administrator of the North-Eastern state of Adamawa recently said Nigerians infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV), which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS), should not be allowed to move and live among the public.

“Such victims should be confined to a place where they would continue to receive treatment rather than be allowed to mingle with and spread the virus to other people,” Kalu-Igboamah said.

Some 319 million naira (about 39 million u.s. dollars) has been committed annually to AIDS control by the Federal and State governments.

According to statistics in the Ministry of Health, 5,201 Nigerians have died of AIDS between 1989 (when the first case was reported here) and December last year. Of this number, Adamawa State recorded some 152 AIDS-related deaths.

Most Nigerians still hold superstitious beliefs on how HIV and AIDS are spread, and some even echo Kalu-Igboamah’s call for the complete isolation of people with HIV/AIDS.

“The Administrator’s order to arrest and confine AIDS victims is in order going by the Nigerian constitution section 32, which guarantees the rights to free movement, but denies such movements in cases of infections and drug addiction,” says Sunny Oyengbulu of the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), a human rights group.

“The constitution allows for the confinement of such persons for the purposes of treatment and to prevent the spread of such contagious diseases,” Oyengbulu said.

“The constitution makes provision for it because the interest of the larger society is more important than the interest of an individual,” he added.

The human rights activist said that he believes that “it is not right” for people with HIV and AIDS to freely integrate with the rest of the society.

Several Nigerians interviewed agreed.

“I will not have anything to do with such a person. We can stand and talk or discuss, but I can never allow body contact and I will make sure I do not use anything he uses,” businessman Dominic Oigboshe told IPS here.

“I agree with the Administrator that persons with HIV should be confined for treatment if they are identified, but how do you identify an HIV patient?,” he asked.

Ken Nwagbara, a psychologist here said that the level of AIDS awareness in the country is still relatively low, such that the average Nigerian finds it hard to believe that they can safely interact with people with HIV and AIDS.

“Unless there is in-depth education on the causes, spread and prevention of AIDS at the grassroots, it will take a longer time for people to accept to treat HIV positive patients with care instead of scorn,” Nwagbara said.

Reacting to the Administrator’s statement, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Ihechukwu Madubuike, appealed to Nigerians to interact with AIDS patients.

In a release signed by the minister’s press secretary Mohammed Abdul and made available to IPS Madubuike says: “There is no basis for discrimination against victims of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

“It is unwarranted and cruel to attempt to quarantine AIDS patients as it has been scientifically established that the disease cannot be transmitted through mere social interaction with victims,” Madubuike said.

The Health Minister’s statement explains how HIV is transmitted and notes that experiences in other parts of the world show that isolation may increase rather than curtail the spread of the disease.

“Experience from other parts of the world shows that isolation of AIDS victims does not help to curtail the spread of the disease, rather, the cruel practice has been found to fuel the rising incidence of the disease since it drives them underground, where in despair, they tend to vent their feelings on innocent citizens.”

Ekang Emah of the Family Health International AIDS Control and Prevention Project said that rather than shunning people with AIDS, Nigerians should “help them live normal lives”.

“… AIDS is like other diseases. If people who have tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, etc. are not ostracised, then people with AIDS should not be an exception,” he said.

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