The Culture of Stigmatization Toward PLWHA in Nigeria

The Culture of Stigmatization Toward PLWHA in Nigeria
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The Culture of Stigmatization Toward PLWHA in Nigeria
Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a primary public health issue in Nigeria. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) encounter social and personal problems such as discriminatory attitudes and stigmatization. In most cases, PLWHA are isolated by other individuals in society, which affect their quality of lives adversely. Despite the presence of anti-retroviral treatment, these people face isolation and condemnation from friends, relatives, and community members around them due to their HIV status. Some of the health problems associated with stigmatization and discrimination are identity crises, low self-esteem, loneliness, the failure of participation in HIV testing exercises, and the lack of motivation to practice preventive measures. If PLWHA are showed compassion by those living with them, they are likely to embrace protective prevention measures and be cautious about their sexual behaviors. The culture of discrimination and stigmatization of PLWHA is more widespread in Nigeria due to the issues of the poor ethical and legal framework that influence the weak healthcare system in the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines public health informatics (PHI) as the methodical application of technology, data, and computer science to public health practice, learning, and research (CDC, 2018). Some of the primary components of PHI are health promotion, disease prevention, preparedness, and surveillance. PHIs address technological and information problems from affected individuals’ perspectives. Informatics is crucial since it facilitates the conversion of raw data into useful information. Moreover, information is a vital resource in work involving public health since it enables specialists to analyze an infectious or chronic disease. Although health practitioners might require information to understand a particular illness, it might be challenging for them to interpret it. For this reason, PHI offers the translation service where they present the available information to health specialists in a manner that they can comprehend it entirely and make relevant medical decisions (Aziz, 2017). When it comes to the application of PHI in my topic of the culture of stigmatization in Nigeria, it is clear that informatics plays a vital role in identifying and address the problems that PLWHA encounters in their daily lives. For example, the population of PLWHA in Nigeria is approximately 3.8 million. Despite the intervention by the United Nations (UN), the rate of deaths and infections related to HIV/AIDS is high in West Africa. Due to the use of PHI, the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) decreased the infections by forty percent and deaths emanating from AIDS by forty-two percent. The United Nations Program dealing with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has a vision of zero discrimination, zero AIDS-associated deaths, and zero HIV infections (Odimegwu, Akinyemi, & Alabi, 2017). Without informatics, it would be hard for this international organization to determine whether it is working in the r...