Health Communication and HIV Treatment in Nigeria: A Research Report

This report examines the critical role of health communication in HIV treatment and prevention within the context of Nigeria. It highlights the challenges faced, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM), due to factors such as societal intolerance, criminalization of MSM behavior, and lack of awareness. The report explores the importance of health communication strategies, including physician-patient interactions and the use of social media, to disseminate information about HIV prevention, treatment, and care. It also analyzes the impact of government policies and programs on reducing stigma and improving access to care for MSM. The report emphasizes the need for improved planning and implementation of policies to address discrimination and promote effective health communication to combat the HIV epidemic in Nigeria. The report references several studies and reports, including those by Adeyinka et al. (2019), Awofala & Ogundele (2018), Flickinger et al. (2016), Hornik (2018), Nowak et al. (2019), Odimegwu et al. (2017), and Taggart et al. (2015), to support its findings and recommendations.

Running head: RESEARCH
HIV TREATMENT AND PREVENTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract
Issue
Health communication is an important part in case of preventing HIV transmission.
However, in a country like Nigeria, HIV prevention is a challenging task, specifically in the
case of men who have sex with other men (MSM) are facing difficulty to access proper care.
Lack of health communication is one of the major issues related to this problem.
Description
The Health communication is defined as the strategies implemented to provide health
information which includes public health campaigns, health education. The motive of health
communication is to influence personal choices related to health by providing health
education1. Previously health communication referred to the communication processes by
which only one individual can be targeted, however, in recent studies health communication
is considered as a social procedure which can target multiple social levels2. Communication
helps people by providing health related information. In case of HIV, communication can
help people to understand AIDS and they can access proper medical and psychological care3.
Hence, the communication between physician and patient has significant importance in the
case of providing information4. The patient needs to understand the risk of the infection at the
1 ("What Is Health Communications? | Gateway To Health Communication | CDC" 2019)
2 Hornik, Robert. "Public health education and communication as policy instruments for bringing about changes
in behavior." In Social marketing, pp. 45-58. Psychology Press, 2018.
3 Beach, Mary Catherine, Debra L. Roter, Somnath Saha, P. Todd Korthuis, Susan Eggly, Jonathan Cohn,
Victoria Sharp, Richard D. Moore, and Ira B. Wilson. "Impact of a brief patient and provider intervention to
improve the quality of communication about medication adherence among HIV patients." Patient education and
counseling 98, no. 9 (2015): 1078-1083.
4 Flickinger, T. E., Saha, S., Roter, D., Korthuis, P. T., Sharp, V., Cohn, J., ... & Beach, M. C. (2016). Clinician
empathy is associated with differences in patient–clinician communication behaviors and higher medication
self-efficacy in HIV care. Patient education and counseling, 99(2), 220-226.

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time of sexual intercourse. Moreover, the patient needs to aware about the other routes of
transmission such as blood donation. The physician should involve providing the information
of the treatment to the patient. These information can reduce the chances of transmission.
Apart from physician-patient communication, there are several ways by which adequate
health communication is possible. According to a study by Taggart et al. (2015), social media
can be an important means of communication as it connects different users around the globe.
However, the study also described that maintain confidentiality be the limitation of using
social media5. Despite of these advantages of health communication in the prevention of HIV,
Nigeria is facing difficulty in implementing adequate health communication. Nigeria is one
of the countries in Africa which is highly affected by HIV/AIDS. The prevalence of HIV in
Nigeria is complicated and it differs in different regions of the country6. Young adults of
Nigeria are specifically facing high risk of HIV. Moreover, young women are facing greater
risk compared to men7. The significant factors that facilitate HIV infection are prostitution,
women trafficking, high prevalence of sexually transmitted infection and drug addiction8.
According to a report by the Government of Nigeria, 1.4% of adults aged 15-49 years are
affected by HIV9. However the result indicates a reduction in number of HIV infected adults,
still, it has a serious impact on socioeconomic progression of the country. In Nigeria, HIV
5 Taggart, Tamara, Mary Elisabeth Grewe, Donaldson F. Conserve, Catherine Gliwa, and Malika Roman Isler.
"Social media and HIV: a systematic review of uses of social media in HIV communication." Journal of medical
Internet research 17, no. 11 (2015): e248.
6 Awofala, Awoyemi Abayomi, and Olusegun Emmanuel Ogundele. "HIV epidemiology in Nigeria." Saudi
journal of biological sciences 25, no. 4 (2018): 697-703.
7 Awofala, Awoyemi Abayomi, and Olusegun Emmanuel Ogundele. "HIV epidemiology in Nigeria." Saudi
journal of biological sciences 25, no. 4 (2018): 697-703.
8 Awofala, Awoyemi Abayomi, and Olusegun Emmanuel Ogundele. "HIV epidemiology in Nigeria." Saudi
journal of biological sciences 25, no. 4 (2018): 697-703.
9 Adeyinka, Daniel A., Babayemi O. Olakunde, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, and Echezona E. Ezeanolue. "HIV
Indicator and Impact Survey: considerations for Nigeria." The Lancet HIV 6, no. 6 (2019): e348-e350.

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infection among MSM is higher (17-66%) compared to the heterosexual individual (7%)10.
There are individual factors such as ignorance about HIV test, condom less sex are mostly
related to HIV infections among Nigerian MSM. According to Nowak et al. (2019) a high
number of MSM in sub-Saharan African Cohort are ignorant about HIV treatment due to the
intolerance and criminalization of MSM behavior11. Social issue such as discrimination of
MSM is a major reason which facilitates MSM to less likely access care. However, according
to a study Odimegwu et al. (2017), research policies and programs undertook by the Nigeria
government play an important contribution to remove the stigma of MSM related HIV from
the society. His study also suggested that Nigeria requires adequate planning to implement
those policies to reduce discrimination among MSM12.
Conclusion
It is understood that health communication has a positive effect on the treatment of
HIV/AIDS. However, the society in Nigeria is intolerant about the MSM and the government
has also criminalized the activity. This leads to the development of ignorance towards HIV
prevention among MSM. The government of Nigeria need to implement adequate policies to
reduce this discrimination. However, some reports argue that the government has the policies
but there is a deficiency in organized planning in implementation.
10 Nowak, Rebecca G., Andrew Mitchell, Trevor A. Crowell, Hongjie Liu, Sosthenes Ketende, Habib O.
Ramadhani, Nicaise Ndembi et al. "Individual and sexual network predictors of HIV incidence among men who
have sex with men in Nigeria." Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 80, no. 4 (2019): 444.
11 Nowak, Rebecca G., Andrew Mitchell, Trevor A. Crowell, Hongjie Liu, Sosthenes Ketende, Habib O.
Ramadhani, Nicaise Ndembi et al. "Individual and sexual network predictors of HIV incidence among men who
have sex with men in Nigeria." Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 80, no. 4 (2019): 444.
12 Odimegwu, Clifford O., Joshua O. Akinyemi, and Olatunji O. Alabi. "HIV-stigma in Nigeria: review of
research studies, policies, and Programmes." AIDS research and treatment 2017 (2017).

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Reference
Adeyinka, Daniel A., Babayemi O. Olakunde, Olanrewaju Oladimeji, and Echezona E.
Ezeanolue. "HIV Indicator and Impact Survey: considerations for Nigeria." The Lancet HIV
6, no. 6 (2019): e348-e350.
Awofala, Awoyemi Abayomi, and Olusegun Emmanuel Ogundele. "HIV epidemiology in
Nigeria." Saudi journal of biological sciences 25, no. 4 (2018): 697-703.
Flickinger, T. E., Saha, S., Roter, D., Korthuis, P. T., Sharp, V., Cohn, J., ... & Beach, M. C.
(2016). Clinician empathy is associated with differences in patient–clinician communication
behaviors and higher medication self-efficacy in HIV care. Patient education and counseling,
99(2), 220-226.
Hornik, Robert. "Public health education and communication as policy instruments for
bringing about changes in behavior." In Social marketing, pp. 45-58. Psychology Press, 2018.
Nowak, Rebecca G., Andrew Mitchell, Trevor A. Crowell, Hongjie Liu, Sosthenes Ketende,
Habib O. Ramadhani, Nicaise Ndembi et al. "Individual and sexual network predictors of
HIV incidence among men who have sex with men in Nigeria." Journal of acquired immune
deficiency syndromes (1999) 80, no. 4 (2019): 444.
Odimegwu, Clifford O., Joshua O. Akinyemi, and Olatunji O. Alabi. "HIV-stigma in Nigeria:
review of research studies, policies, and Programmes." AIDS research and treatment 2017
(2017).
Taggart, Tamara, Mary Elisabeth Grewe, Donaldson F. Conserve, Catherine Gliwa, and
Malika Roman Isler. "Social media and HIV: a systematic review of uses of social media in
HIV communication." Journal of medical Internet research 17, no. 11 (2015): e248.

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"What Is Health Communications? | Gateway To Health Communication | CDC". 2019.
Cdc.Gov. https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/healthbasics/whatishc.html.