Nigeria: Access to Health Care for People Living with HIV and AIDS

Stigma and discrimination are critical factors in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Health care professionals face enormous challenges in addressing this problem in society and within the health sector. Most health care professionals in Nigeria appear to providing care to people living with AIDS (PLWA) and to complying with their ethical responsibilities despite the lack of sufficient materials needed for treatment and prevention. However a considerable minority of those surveyed reported engaging in discriminatory and/or unethical behavior, including denial of care, refusal of admission to a hospital, testing for HIV without consent and disclosing confidential medical information without permission. Such behaviors must be addressed if the pandemic in Nigeria is to be reversed. Also at stake are the health and well-being of PLWA and the credibility and integrity of health practicioners and the health system as a whole.  This study is the first population-based assessment of discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS in the health sector of a country.

PHR, the Policy Project Nigeria and the Center for the Right to Health conducted two surveys. The first, a survey of a representative sample of health professionals in four sites in Nigeria, and the second, a convenience sample of people living with HIV/AIDS in the four states and in Lagos and Abuja.

August 15, 2006, 89 pages

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