Nigeria to Offer Free Anti-Retrovirals
The New York Times is reporting that with the help of outside donors (such as the Global Fund) and its own revenue (from oil I would think), Nigeria will offer free anti-retroviral therapy. Nigeria had previously been charging about $8 a month, still too much for many poor Nigerians. What I didn’t realize is that 3.5 million Nigerians, are HIV-positive, the most cases in the world save for South Africa and India. While disease incidence is relatively low, the aggregate numbers are huge, given the size of Nigeria’s total population. This is another reason to pay attention to countries with large populations with a low incidence of the disease. Even a small percentage of HIV-positive people can translate into millions of people.
Filed under: Politics and Policy
I had no idea that there were that high a number of HIV-positive people in Nigeria. I was aware of the high number in South Africa and India. With the help of the Global Fund are the Nigerians that are not able to pay the $8.00 a month able to receive medicine? While we are helping with medication what are we doing to help the spread of this disease in the poorer countries.