Q & A with Prof. David O. Olaleye And Dr. Georgina N. Odaibo
University College Hospital-UCH, APIN Project, Ibadan, Nigeria

October 2002

What are the effects of the AIDS epidemic on the community?

The real impacts of AIDS have been seen mainly in the middle belt and some parts of Akwa Ibom States of Nigeria. Apparently, the epidemic has had its greatest toll in these areas in terms of death, orphans, burden on family members and hospital facilities.

A particular story that stands out in our mind is the situation in Ogobia in Benue State when over a long period in 1999/2000 the town lost an average of 5 persons per week to AIDS related deaths, involving mostly young men and women. The deaths were initially attributed to all sorts of “myths”. When David Olaleye visited the place in June 2000 there was no household without at least one severely sick person or a recent death of family members. A similar situation was reported from a Catholic hospital in Ogoja in the year 2000.

What are your fears and hopes about the epidemic?

The fears are the fact that it may take very long time and invariably very high death tolls for people in a country with huge population like Nigeria to admit the reality of AIDS. Also the low level of literacy, the poverty and the multicultural setting of Nigeria remain serious problems in the efforts to control the spread of HIV in the country.

The hope about the response of the government is the commitment of the present administration to control the epidemic. The particular interest of the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is unprecedented, highly commendable and motivating. The new leadership of NACA has also promised to adopt the policy of evidence (research) based intervention as opposed to the old method of “one stick for all”!

What has been the impact of APIN on your project?

Hitherto, the HIV/AIDS programs at the UCH were mainly testing and mostly mandatory with little or no follow-up. The attitude of health workers to HIV infected persons was negative. Basic lab work was facilitated on an ad hoc basis or carried out abroad because of lack of adequate facilities.

The APIN project introduced improvement into the whole facet of HIV/AIDS program in our system. The above limitations were identified and addressed through the training of personnel and the provision of facilities. Now testing is voluntary with pre- and post-test counselling by trained APIN Project counsellors in the Department of Virology, UCH. Through the APIN Mother-to-Child-Transmission program, all the categories of health workers in UCH have been trained. APIN Project staff in our department deal with HIV infected persons like any other patient with love and care, etc.

The laboratory is able to provide better diagnostic services especially confirmatory testing of infection in adults using Western Blot testing strips, provided by Professor Phyllis Kanki’s Laboratory in Boston, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) techniques to establish infection in babies of infected mothers. The research capability of the lab in the area of molecular virology of HIV has improved tremendously with trained personnel and provision of facilities through the APIN program. The APIN project at UCH also provides laboratory support for the national ARV program and management of patients from the various specialities of the hospital.