AFRO-NETS> How Accurate are Estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Africa?

["O. Kasirim Nwuke" <nadya@bu.edu>]

How Accurate are Estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Africa?
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Lessons From Ogobia, Nigeria

Please read the story reproduced below and draw your own conclusions. 
Anyroads, let us hope that the HIV/AIDS entrepreneurs in Africa will 
become a touch wiser after reading this ...

Thanks.

O. Kasirim Nwuke
mailto:nadya@bu.edu

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 14:18:51 -0600 
From: olorunfemi ojo <jojo@tntech.edu> 
To: naijanet <naijanet@egroups.com> 
Subject: OGOBIA - BENUE STATE: THE VILLAGE OF HIV/AIDS ?

Saturday, March 18, 2000 Ogobia, the day after

By Bolaji Tunji

OGOBIA is a little known community of about 9,000 inhabitants in 
Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State. But that was before the 
media focus that shifted international attention to the tiny village. 
Today, Ogobia is almost synonymous with HIV/AIDS. Indeed, the story 
of Ogobia is that of a place where you can hardly walk down a street 
without seeing an HIV/AIDS infected person or freshly dug graves of 
victims of the dreaded disease.

For members of the community, it is a stigma that they have found 
difficult to live with. Strangers would not venture into the serene 
town. Many chose not to be associated with ladies from the village. 
The matter came to a head when youths of the town went for the police 
recruitment in Makurdi. The young men - Emmanuel Ojila, Dade Abakpa, 
Onoja Augustine, Okopi Ijegwar, Umoru Ejenbi and Benjamin Ulokpo were 
all simply told not to mix with the others because they came from 
Ogobia.

Emmanuel Ojila spoke for his colleagues: "When we got to the recruit-
ment (centre) in Makurdi, they then asked us to tender letters of 
place of origin. They saw that I came from Otukpo and specifically 
from Ogobia Local Government. The man told me that they will not re-
cruit me because I am from Ogobia which is the centre for AIDS. They 
later called all of us from Ogobia together... nobody even tried to 
ascertain whether we were HIV-free or not", he spoke with bitterness.

Ojila and his friends are not the only ones that have been stigma-
tised by the report on their community. The spiritual head of Ogobia, 
Chief Okopi Okampo also narrated how he had sent someone to Oboloa-
for, Enugu State, a distance of about 70 kilometres to hire a lorry 
to help convey some bags of Garri. "The driver refused to come when 
he learnt he was from Ogobia", he said. Indeed, road construction 
which has been one of the activities which enlivens their community 
has become another source of regret. When roads are being constructed 
in the surrounding areas, construction workers used to establish 
their headquarters in Ogobia. "But this is no longer the case since 
this report about our community. A road construction between Otukpo 
and Oweta runs through this place. One would have thought the workers 
would lodge here as usual but they have refused to stay in our town", 
Chief Okampo laments.

"Our foodstuff such as Garri and yam are now being refused in the 
market whenever they learnt that we came from Ogobia", he said.

To him, the television crew that came to their community has not been 
fair to them. "It is not the true situation that was painted. They 
took shots of people that have died long ago while freshly dug pits 
meant for pit latrine were said to be for dead AIDS victims", he ex-
plained.

According to him, some people were induced to make "confessions". Mr. 
Victor Abu who claims to be a member of the HIV/AIDS team in the com-
munity explains further: "When people are sick, they believe that the 
sickness has no cure, so they go to the St. Joseph Hospital run by 
the Catholic sisters to report. When they get there, they are told to 
accept the fact that their relations had AIDS. They promise to help 
them and take care of them. So because of the poverty in the area, 
most people just go to the hospital to declare that they have AIDS or 
one of their people has got it, so that they can get the help", he 
said.

This situation was captured succinctly by young Oyiwodu Jibrin, a 
teenage girl. "They came to us saying whoever lost a parent should 
come and report. They told us it was AIDS that killed our parents. So 
they started giving us food items". She was also given N250 as com-
pensation for appearing on television as one of the orphans who lost 
her parents to AIDS. But Oyiwodu only lost her mother last year; her 
father is still alive though currently living in Kano.

With the stigma on their community, the youths protested the invasion 
of their privacy. Mr. Uji Eje, a member of the community said they 
were not interested in HIV/AIDS campaign in their area. The patients 
at the hospital were also taken away while some community members 
said they preferred the sick ones in hospital to die at home to 
"spoiling the community name".

At the hospital, all the beds were empty and beddings folded up.

But the issue did not end at that as the protesting youths were ar-
rested by police. In all, 18 youths were arrested on Monday, February 
28 though they were released after two days but not without an under-
taking to be of good behaviour from the village head.

Mr. Ogbenjuwa Ogbole, an ex-serviceman was among those detained. Dur-
ing his interrogation, the police said they had got information that 
"we wanted to forcefully remove the people in the hospital."

Eje and his wife, Iyanma were also interrogated. Iyanma because she 
was one of those in the forefront of the campaign to stop the 
HIV/AIDS campaign in the community.

Speaking on the development, Mr. Kelvin Ale Agbo, a former councillor 
from Ogobia, said the report on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS was 
grossly exaggerated. "Though we have HIV/AIDS infected persons, they 
were not as many as people were made to believe. We are really sur-
prised at the picture painted of the community. The St. Joseph Clinic 
and Maternity Hospital does not have equipment to screen AIDS neither 
do they have a resident doctor. The place is run by Catholic sisters. 
So, how did they arrive at the figure on the numbers of people with 
HIV/AIDS?" he queried.

At the hospital, one of the sisters confirmed that they do not have 
equipment to screen HIV/AIDS infection. "Most of the people do the 
test from elsewhere and if they come here saying they have HIV/AIDS 
infection, we accept them.

The matron in charge of the hospital Sister Mary Okoro declined to 
speak on the issue because "it is a delicate thing for now". Accord-
ing to her, the issue has been blown out of proportion and this has 
brought great conflict between the hospital and the community.

"For now, the community has disallowed their people from coming here 
to collect drugs and food. We have heard of how graves and pits were 
shown, but it is not that way. We are not denying that we have people 
living with HIV/AIDS in the community, but it is not as many as they 
are making people watching television achieve", she said.

But what is the true situation of things in Ogobia? Investigation re-
vealed that like all communities in the country, Otukpo and Ogobia 
community have their own share of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Indeed, a report compiled by the local government between 1993 and 
1998 at the General Hospital, Otukpo revealed that out of about 4,858 
people screened, 2201 were found positive representing 45.3 per cent. 
Also between January and November 1999, 456 people were screened in 
Ogobia while 67 people tested positive. Further investigation re-
vealed that though Ogobia has a very low figure, it was singled out 
because there is an AIDS support group established by the Pathfinder 
International which is very active in the area.

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