https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10228200693551340&id=1497022465


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzYror8DmXA

*NEPWHAN advises Nigerians to know their HIV status.**

As the world celebrates World AIDS Day, members of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, NEPWHAN, Rivers State Chapter, have called on Nigerians to know their HIV status.

Speaking on Morning Spectrum, a live breakfast show on RSTV, Port Harcourt, the Public Relations Officer of NEPWHAN, Peace Elijah, said it was important that Nigerians go for periodic testing to know their HIV status as early detection was key to saving lives of positive persons.

Madam Elijah decried the continuous discrimination against people living with HIV in Nigeria while describing family and community stigmatization as some of the worst treatments HIV positive persons get in Nigeria.

The PRO said rejection by the family and church had led to the death of many people living with the virus in the country.

She therefore called on the authorities to put measures in place to stop all forms of discrimination and stigmatization in the country.

Her colleague in the studio, Boma Wakama, deputy coordinator of NEPWHAN in Rivers State, said self stigma was one of the worst forms of stigmatization in the world. He said many HIV positive persons had lost their lives because of it, adding that some of them because of refusal to accept their status and access care given freely by the government died prematurely.

Mr. Wakama advised Nigerians to take their health seriously and make it a duty to know their HIV status, reiterating the need for HIV negative persons to remain negative by all means possible while positive persons should take advantage of the free care offered by government.