Soldiers, Policemen Among Groups With High HIV Risks – FG

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The Federal Government’s agency monitoring the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, National Agency for the Control of AIDS, has said that statistics showed that the police and the armed forces were among six groups with the highest risk of the virus.

According to the Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey, apart from the soldiers and policemen, other groups with high risks in the country were female sex workers, homosexuals, transport workers and drug addicts.

The NACA DG said, “Sub-Saharan Africa is the most severely affected with the HIV. Nearly one in every 25 adults lives with the virus.

“Also, Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic in the world. The factors include: inadequate knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention, low risk perception, low uptake of HIV testing services, multiple concurrent partnerships, ineffective and inefficient services for sexually transmitted infections.