MTN Donates Towards AIDS Care and Support in Nigeria

November 2002 - In a unique fulfillment of its corporate responsibility, MTN Nigeria Limited has donated two cyflows worth $60,000 to two AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) laboratories at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan and the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) Jos. Cyflows are used to determine CD4 cell count -which is a determinant of the level of immunological capacity and competence of People living with AIDS (PLWAs) and to monitor response to Anti-Retro Viral (ARV) therapy.

One of the recurrent issues in the Nigerian National ARV Access Initiative is the issue of availability and cost of laboratory tests. The tests however are very important in order to monitor improvement in clinical status and for issues relating to tolerance, adherence and drug resistance.

Among all these tests, CD4 cell count and viral load are indices of measuring response to therapy. It is recognized that together with clinical improvement, rising CD4 cell count and falling plasma viral load signify improvement in the status of PLWAs on ARV therapy.

As important as these tests are, people living with AIDS who are already or who might have benefited from this laudable scheme of the Federal Government of Nigeria are hindered from taking the advantage by the share cost of these tests. This has been the usual complaint of the network of people living AIDS. Apart from the cost, some ARV centres have no facilities for measuring the viral load while few have modern equipment for measuring CD4 thus threatening reliability of results.

In order to make the ARV more accessible and to improve the quality of test carried out in the APIN laboratories in UCH Ibadan and JUTH Jos, one of the Harvard officers working in the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) program, negotiated the support from MTN Communication Nigeria for donations of Cyflow to the two laboratories. Mr. Adrian Woods CEO, MTN Nigeria in accordance with company policy on HIV/AIDS took it up and very recently presented two Cyflows to the APIN laboratories in Jos and Ibadan.

Cyflow are modern equipment manufactured by Partec Gmb of Germany. It has the advantage of quality and it is very cost effective. It is estimated that it will reduce the cost of CD4 cell count from the current $25 to $2 per test. This we believe will further ameliorate the conditions of PLWAS.

Apart from donation of the cytometers to hospitals in the countries where MTN operates, the company's policy on HIV/AIDS also includes provision of information on HIV/AIDS to its staff and the installation of condoms dispensing machines in its factories, warehouses and offices within the establishment. According to Mr. Adrian Woods, 'MTN recognizes that up to 50% of its workforce are young people below 25 years of age and the implication of HIV/AIDS gaining root within the organization can be catastrophic. Therefore every cent spent on HIV/AIDS prevention is good investment'. Secondly, 'as responsible corporate citizen, MTN owes Nigeria and Nigerians the service it is providing through the donation of the Cyflows.'

Prof. Phyllis Kanki of the Harvard School of Public Health and the APIN director said, 'this is a very generous donation from MTN. We felt that this equipment would not only benefit our research projects on surveillance but also the national prevention of mother to child to transmission (PMTCT) program and the ARV centers'.