Joy Onuorah

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has said that a recent study carried out by the agency has shown that unmarried men and women make up the highest number of persons infected with HIV infections in the country.

Disclosing this to newsmen at a media parley on Monday, August 9, the Director-General of NACA, Dr Gambo Aliyu, said the study has also shown that women who have never been married contributed more to HIV infections than men in the country.

Aliyu said while never-married individuals contributed to 64 per cent of new HIV infections in the country, new infections among female s*x workers (FSW) and men who have s*x with men (MSM) make up 91 per cent of all new infections among adults.

In his words:

The younger generation who are never married is not using prevention. They don’t listen or want to have anything to do with HIV services. If we can reach them and connect them, we can come closer to reducing the pandemic.

The never-married population is the largest source of new infections and is mostly between the ages of 17 to 34 for females and 19 to 31 for men. Special efforts are needed to be made to reach this population in schools, workplaces, gathering spots and through social media,” he said.