RIVERS STATE HAS THE HIGHEST RATE OF HIV IN NIGERIA

The Federal Government has released the 2012 National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey-Plus which indicates that Nigeria now has HIV prevalence rate of 3.4 per cent. The annual survey, which was conducted to monitor the HIV/AIDS epidemic among the country’s population, also monitors other sexual and reproductive health indicators. Rivers State is leading other states of the country with a prevalence rate of 15.2 per cent. The survey indicated that, “Compared with the 3.6 per cent in 2007, about 3.4 per cent of Nigerians are currently living with HIV/AIDS, with 3.2 per cent in urban and 3.6 per cent in the rural areas; 2.9 per cent among young people aged 15-19 years.” Taraba State ranked second with a prevalence rate of 10.5 per cent, followed by Kaduna State with 9.2 per cent; Nasarawa state, 8.1 per cent and the Federal Capital Territory with 7.5 per cent. Ekiti State, however, has the lowest prevalence rate of 0.2 per cent; Zamfara State, 0.4 per cent; Bauchi State, 0.6 per cent; and Ogun State, 0.6 per cent. The Rivers State government however expressed doubts over the statistics