HIV AIDS Policy Brief Nigeria

Integrating HIV/AIDS and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming in Nigeria - policy brief.

Nigeria, with a population of about 140 million people, has an HIV prevalence of 3.7 per cent. People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are highly susceptible to opportunistic infections, particularly tuberculosis (TB), and infections that cause diarrhoea.

With the increased risk of the spread of HIV and other infections through the poor handling and disposal of infective/contaminated materials, PLHA require adequate WASH practices to prevent infection. Hand-washing alone can reduce the risk of diarrhoea by 42-44 per cent, while improvements in human waste disposal can reduce diarrhoeal morbidity by 22 per cent.

This policy brief looks at how WASH programming could be integrating with HIV/AIDS programming.