By Suleiman Tajudeen
… Continued from last week
CITIZENS COMPASS —taken very seriously by the health workers and NGO’s to reduce the menace of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
4. Preventive awareness programs to support the millions affected, must be pursued vigorously to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS live a normal and productive life.
5. Members of the public need to be psycho-educated on the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the health implications on individuals and the general public in order to reduce the discrimination and stigmatisation experienced by PLWHAS.
6. It is important to encourage our youth and members of the public by empowering them to talk to people about the healthy, social, psychological effects of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, in order to control the spread of the disease.
7. Psychologist as a behavioural scientist, have an important role to play in designing behavioral change strategies and in framing public health responses to the AIDS epidemic globally (APA 2020,2021)
8. The use of condoms and other preventive measures was said to have failed hence the need for practising safe sex,abstinence and other sex practices that will help to reduce the menace of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria ( i.e prevention was said to be better than cure).
9. Psychologists should use the application of research methods to educate students and members of the public to create awareness on problems.
In conclusion, the fighting of HIV/AIDS is one of the Millennium Development Goals. The government and relevant organisations should therefore ensure that HIV/AIDS information is well disseminated to the infected person, target population like the adolescents and the society at large.
REFERENCES
• HIV/AIDS: THE Global Epidemic (1996) https: // www.Unaids.Org/….epidemio/situat at ht.Retrieved on 24th Oct,, 2024.
• National Agency for the control of AIDS (NACA)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• UNAIDS(2023/2024)
• WHO, (2001) HIV/AIDS transmission: Sub-Sahara Africa Bulletin of World Health Organization www.dailytrust/HIV/AID.com Retrieved on 13th October, 2024.
WHO., (2001). AIDS. Global Data Weekly Epidemiology Record 68:193-5.
www.google/good governance.com. Retrieved on 20th Oct, 2024.
Dr Suleiman Tajudeen is Head, Clinical Psychology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos State
