CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTORY ORIENTATION
INTRODUCTION
The HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) epidemic has become a major challenge for modern society. A report published in 2007 estimated that 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS/WHO 2007:3). This report claimed that HIV/AIDS has been the cause of the death of more than 2.9 million persons. In the report HIV/AIDS is described as the biggest social, health, developmental and security issue facing the world. It would seem as if this problem does not respect either country, border, culture, race, language, colour, sex or age (Bozkaya 1994; Cetin 1993b, in: Savaser 2003:71).
The HIV/AIDS epidemic appears to be of particular concern in many developing countries, as these countries account for 95% of the worldwide burden (UNAIDS 2005:10). A UNAIDS (2008:1) report stated that an estimated 1.9 million people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 alone, bringing the number of persons living with HIV to 22 million. This report indicates that approximately sixty seven percent (67%) of the global total of persons with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, and seventy five percent (75%) of all AIDS-related deaths in 2007 occurred in this region.
In 2002 the National Intelligence Council predicted that the five countries expected to experience the heaviest burden of HIV infections would be India, China, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Russia. According to the Council’s predictions, Nigeria and Ethiopia would be hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, with the number of
persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria projected to be between ten to fifteen million by 2010. Without effective prevention on a large scale, Nigeria was seen as experiencing not only the tragedy of countless lives forever altered by the virus, but also untold adverse social and economic effects (Adeyi, Kanki, Odutolu, & Idoko 2006:7).
- LYSIS
Realisation of the problem
Several routes of the transmission of HIV have been identified, namely, by means of sexual intercourse, the use of contaminated hypodermic needles, by means of blood and blood products, and by the transmission of the virus from infected mothers to their unborn babies (Kalichman 1995:100). However, in Africa the prevalent AIDS scourge seems to be transmitted primarily through sexual relations (Howlett, Watoky, Mmuni, & Missalek 1989:12). Of the cases reported in Nigeria, sexual contact accounted for approximately 84% of all infections, mother-to-child transmissions for about 14%, while the remaining 2% were reported to be as a result of blood transfusions (Report by the Federal Ministry of Health 2002:9).
An estimated 60% of the new infections reported in Nigeria were from young people aged between 13 to 25 (UNAIDS Report, 2005b:1-2). The statistics of a survey on adolescent behaviour indicated that it was their sexual practices that contributed to their being a high risk group in terms of being infected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (Hoppe, Wells, Wilsdon, Gillmore & Morrison 1994:117-126). Adolescents seem to be engaging in high risk sexual behaviour, often without protecting themselves against the consequences of such behaviour. If they had the knowledge of sexually
transmitted diseases, of the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, and of sexually transmitted diseases, it did not seem that this knowledge led to risk-reducing behaviour (Barnfather 1999:1).
