Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode; Martha Ochoga; Yetunde Tagurum; Solomon Atiene Sagay

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

| Peer-Reviewed

Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode, Martha Ochoga, Yetunde Tagurum, Solomon Atiene Sagay

Published in International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science (Volume 7, Issue 1)

Received: 30 May 2021 Accepted: 15 June 2021 Published: 21 June 2021

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Nigeria bears 10% of global HIV burden and contributes 32% to global unmet-need for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), which together with heterosexual transmission are the epidemic’s key drivers as PMTCT clinics show approximately 45% serodiscordance rates among couples. WHO recommends accelerated Anti-retroviral Therapy initiation for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) for improved quality-of-life and preventing new vertical and horizontal infections, using same drug – Emtricitabine, Tenofovir and Efaverenz (once daily Atripla). The policy paper seeks to make a case that the National PMTCT task team and the Federal Ministry of health of Nigeria, should make a policy change, and shift from the current Option B PMTCT option. The option provides Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to pregnant HIV positive women who do for PMTCT, but discontinue them after cessation of breast-feeding, when the viral load is above 500cells/mm³. It proposes that the country should rather adopt the test and treat all policy for all HIV infected persons. The methodology entails the search and use of literature to demonstrate the multiple advantages of early commencement of treatment for all new of HIV infections, considering this has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. The results indicate that test and treat all for life, is now less complex as same drug regimen are used in PMTCT and other non PMTCT adult infections. Studies also show that virologic suppression (undetectable) leads to prevention of new HIV transmission (untransmitable), and this applies to different modes of HIV transmission. The brief concludes by proposing that the Federal Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Control agency, and all actors in Nigeria’s HIV terrains should adopt the WHO test and treat guidelines. This remains a critical step for the elimination of Paediatric HIV infections.

Published in	International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
Page(s)	48-53
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Undetectable, Untransmitable, Policy, PMTCT, HIV Transmission, Atripla

References

[1]	Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria (2014). Integrated National Guidelines for HIV Prevention and Care.
[2]	UNAIDS (2011). The Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping Their Mothers Alive, 2011-2015.
[3]	WHO/UNAIDS. Geneva: 2007. Towards Universal Access ACCESS Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector Progress Report.
[4]	Sagay AS, Ebonyi OE, Meloni ST, Musa J, Oguche S, Ekwempu CC et al.(2015). Mother-to-Child Transmission Outcomes of HIV-Exposed Infants Followed Up in Jos North-Central Nigeria. Current HIV Research, 2015. Bentham Science Publishers.
[5]	Balkus E J, Brown E, Palanee T, Nair G, Gafoor Z, Zhang J, Richardson B A, Chirenje Z M, Marrazzo J M, Baeten J M. (2016). An Empiric HIV Risk Scoring Tool to Predict HIV-1 Acquisition in African Women. AIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. 2016 Jul 1; 72 (3): 333-43 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26918545.
[6]	Kahle EM, Hughes JP, Lingappa JR, Johnstewart G, Celum C, et al.(2013) An Empiric Risk Scoring Tool for Identifying High-Risk Heterosexual HIV-1 Serodiscordant Couples for Targeted HIV-1 Prevention. Journal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
[7]	World Health Organization (2016). Consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations. 2016 update.
[8]	World Health Organization (2016). Consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection. Recommendations for a public health approach - Second edition. Available at http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/arv/arv-2016/en/.
[9]	Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria (2014). Task-Shifting and Task-sharing Policy for Essential Health Care Services In Nigeria. Available at https://www.health.gov.ng/doc/TSTS.pdf assessed on 01/06 /2021.
[10]	Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS (2010). The Nigerian National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (NSP) 2010-2015. Available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_146389.pdf.
[11]	Adult Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines 2014. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. Available at https://sahivsoc.org.
[12]	Chatora, M., Chibanda, H., Kampata, L., Wilbroad, M. (2018). HIV/AIDS workplace policy addressing epidemic drivers through workplace programs. BMC Public Health 18, 180 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5072-y.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode, Martha Ochoga, Yetunde Tagurum, Solomon Atiene Sagay. (2021). Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science, 7(1), 48-53. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode; Martha Ochoga; Yetunde Tagurum; Solomon Atiene Sagay. Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). Int. J. HIV/AIDS Prev. Educ. Behav. Sci. 2021, 7(1), 48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode, Martha Ochoga, Yetunde Tagurum, Solomon Atiene Sagay. Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). Int J HIV/AIDS Prev Educ Behav Sci. 2021;7(1):48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15,
  author = {Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode and Martha Ochoga and Yetunde Tagurum and Solomon Atiene Sagay},
  title = {Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)},
  journal = {International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {48-53},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  abstract = {Nigeria bears 10% of global HIV burden and contributes 32% to global unmet-need for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), which together with heterosexual transmission are the epidemic’s key drivers as PMTCT clinics show approximately 45% serodiscordance rates among couples. WHO recommends accelerated Anti-retroviral Therapy initiation for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) for improved quality-of-life and preventing new vertical and horizontal infections, using same drug – Emtricitabine, Tenofovir and Efaverenz (once daily Atripla). The policy paper seeks to make a case that the National PMTCT task team and the Federal Ministry of health of Nigeria, should make a policy change, and shift from the current Option B PMTCT option. The option provides Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to pregnant HIV positive women who do for PMTCT, but discontinue them after cessation of breast-feeding, when the viral load is above 500cells/mm3. It proposes that the country should rather adopt the test and treat all policy for all HIV infected persons. The methodology entails the search and use of literature to demonstrate the multiple advantages of early commencement of treatment for all new of HIV infections, considering this has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. The results indicate that test and treat all for life, is now less complex as same drug regimen are used in PMTCT and other non PMTCT adult infections. Studies also show that virologic suppression (undetectable) leads to prevention of new HIV transmission (untransmitable), and this applies to different modes of HIV transmission. The brief concludes by proposing that the Federal Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Control agency, and all actors in Nigeria’s HIV terrains should adopt the WHO test and treat guidelines. This remains a critical step for the elimination of Paediatric HIV infections.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)
AU  - Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode
AU  - Martha Ochoga
AU  - Yetunde Tagurum
AU  - Solomon Atiene Sagay
Y1  - 2021/06/21
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
T2  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
JF  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
JO  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
SP  - 48
EP  - 53
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-5765
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
AB  - Nigeria bears 10% of global HIV burden and contributes 32% to global unmet-need for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), which together with heterosexual transmission are the epidemic’s key drivers as PMTCT clinics show approximately 45% serodiscordance rates among couples. WHO recommends accelerated Anti-retroviral Therapy initiation for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) for improved quality-of-life and preventing new vertical and horizontal infections, using same drug – Emtricitabine, Tenofovir and Efaverenz (once daily Atripla). The policy paper seeks to make a case that the National PMTCT task team and the Federal Ministry of health of Nigeria, should make a policy change, and shift from the current Option B PMTCT option. The option provides Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to pregnant HIV positive women who do for PMTCT, but discontinue them after cessation of breast-feeding, when the viral load is above 500cells/mm3. It proposes that the country should rather adopt the test and treat all policy for all HIV infected persons. The methodology entails the search and use of literature to demonstrate the multiple advantages of early commencement of treatment for all new of HIV infections, considering this has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. The results indicate that test and treat all for life, is now less complex as same drug regimen are used in PMTCT and other non PMTCT adult infections. Studies also show that virologic suppression (undetectable) leads to prevention of new HIV transmission (untransmitable), and this applies to different modes of HIV transmission. The brief concludes by proposing that the Federal Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Control agency, and all actors in Nigeria’s HIV terrains should adopt the WHO test and treat guidelines. This remains a critical step for the elimination of Paediatric HIV infections.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode

Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Martha Ochoga

Department of Paediatrics, Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, Nigeria
Yetunde Tagurum

Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Solomon Atiene Sagay

Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode, Martha Ochoga, Yetunde Tagurum, Solomon Atiene Sagay. (2021). Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science, 7(1), 48-53. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode; Martha Ochoga; Yetunde Tagurum; Solomon Atiene Sagay. Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). Int. J. HIV/AIDS Prev. Educ. Behav. Sci. 2021, 7(1), 48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode, Martha Ochoga, Yetunde Tagurum, Solomon Atiene Sagay. Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper). Int J HIV/AIDS Prev Educ Behav Sci. 2021;7(1):48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15,
  author = {Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode and Martha Ochoga and Yetunde Tagurum and Solomon Atiene Sagay},
  title = {Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)},
  journal = {International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {48-53},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijhpebs.20210701.15},
  abstract = {Nigeria bears 10% of global HIV burden and contributes 32% to global unmet-need for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), which together with heterosexual transmission are the epidemic’s key drivers as PMTCT clinics show approximately 45% serodiscordance rates among couples. WHO recommends accelerated Anti-retroviral Therapy initiation for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) for improved quality-of-life and preventing new vertical and horizontal infections, using same drug – Emtricitabine, Tenofovir and Efaverenz (once daily Atripla). The policy paper seeks to make a case that the National PMTCT task team and the Federal Ministry of health of Nigeria, should make a policy change, and shift from the current Option B PMTCT option. The option provides Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to pregnant HIV positive women who do for PMTCT, but discontinue them after cessation of breast-feeding, when the viral load is above 500cells/mm3. It proposes that the country should rather adopt the test and treat all policy for all HIV infected persons. The methodology entails the search and use of literature to demonstrate the multiple advantages of early commencement of treatment for all new of HIV infections, considering this has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. The results indicate that test and treat all for life, is now less complex as same drug regimen are used in PMTCT and other non PMTCT adult infections. Studies also show that virologic suppression (undetectable) leads to prevention of new HIV transmission (untransmitable), and this applies to different modes of HIV transmission. The brief concludes by proposing that the Federal Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Control agency, and all actors in Nigeria’s HIV terrains should adopt the WHO test and treat guidelines. This remains a critical step for the elimination of Paediatric HIV infections.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Halting the Scourge of HIV in Nigeria by Adopting World Health Organization Guidelines for Preventing New Infections (Policy Brief Paper)
AU  - Tinuade Abimbola Oyebode
AU  - Martha Ochoga
AU  - Yetunde Tagurum
AU  - Solomon Atiene Sagay
Y1  - 2021/06/21
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
T2  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
JF  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
JO  - International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education and Behavioural Science
SP  - 48
EP  - 53
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-5765
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijhpebs.20210701.15
AB  - Nigeria bears 10% of global HIV burden and contributes 32% to global unmet-need for Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), which together with heterosexual transmission are the epidemic’s key drivers as PMTCT clinics show approximately 45% serodiscordance rates among couples. WHO recommends accelerated Anti-retroviral Therapy initiation for all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) for improved quality-of-life and preventing new vertical and horizontal infections, using same drug – Emtricitabine, Tenofovir and Efaverenz (once daily Atripla). The policy paper seeks to make a case that the National PMTCT task team and the Federal Ministry of health of Nigeria, should make a policy change, and shift from the current Option B PMTCT option. The option provides Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to pregnant HIV positive women who do for PMTCT, but discontinue them after cessation of breast-feeding, when the viral load is above 500cells/mm3. It proposes that the country should rather adopt the test and treat all policy for all HIV infected persons. The methodology entails the search and use of literature to demonstrate the multiple advantages of early commencement of treatment for all new of HIV infections, considering this has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. The results indicate that test and treat all for life, is now less complex as same drug regimen are used in PMTCT and other non PMTCT adult infections. Studies also show that virologic suppression (undetectable) leads to prevention of new HIV transmission (untransmitable), and this applies to different modes of HIV transmission. The brief concludes by proposing that the Federal Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Control agency, and all actors in Nigeria’s HIV terrains should adopt the WHO test and treat guidelines. This remains a critical step for the elimination of Paediatric HIV infections.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download