Health Zone : Why adolescents in Nigeria are prone to HIV infection

High social tolerance for and the frequent resort to non-consensual sex, including rape and cases of early and high levels of exposure to unsafe sex are among the factors that have perpetually predisposed Nigerians of adolescent and young age grades to HIV infection, officials of Population Council in Nigeria have disclosed.

At a media roundtable convened by Population Council in Lagos, it was also disclosed that a large proportion of adolescents and young people in the country are being exposed to sex earlier than the constitutionally acceptable age of 18. 

Speaking based on statistics on this issue, as contained in various studies presented at the meeting, Country Director, Population Council, Babatunde Ahonsi, disclosed that the vulnerability of adolescent and young Nigerians to HIV is also heightened by the low level of empowerment and the insufficient numbers of youth friendly centres where knowledge on HIV and AIDS is propagated.

This was corroborated by the council’s HIV/AIDS Programme Coordinator, Otibhor Obianwu, who noted, in her presentation, that those within the adolescent and young age group of 10 and 24 make up 31.6 per cent of Nigeria’s population, making them too critical to be ignored.

She said: “This translates to about 55 million people, a size equivalent to the fifth largest country in Africa and 24^th largest in the world.