NIGERIA: 52% Of Married Couples In Akwa Ibom Are HIV Positive- AKSACA

NIGERIAN BULLETIN

AUGUST 01, 2017

According to Dr. Nkereuwem Etok, the Programme Manager of Akwa Ibom state Agency for the Control of AIDS (AKSACA), 51.6 percent of married men and women in the state have tested positive to HIV/AIDS.

“We have areas of high prevalence, before the statistics started coming we were sure that the most-at risk population will be the commercial sex workers, we were sure that this group will be the most affected but our data showed surprisingly that married men and women are the highest HIV infections with 51.6 percent.

“The commercial sex workers recorded only 4 percent while those engaged in casual sex recorded second highest with 30 percent’’ he said.

He attributed the high prevalence rate among the couples to include denial the existence of HIV/AIDS virus and the fact that most of them engage in sex not minding the status of the other sex partners.