
Birthsafe: 'With di right care, women fit get Ice-cream births'
Sake of di concern she get for di high infant and maternal mortality rate for Nigeria, dis Nigeria general practice doctor don develop ogbonge ways to ensure safe child births for both mama and pikin.
Dis protocol ginger Dr Idara Umoette to develop Birthsafe, to help care for women before dem get belle, during di period of pregnancy to make sure say dem born di pikin safely wit mama alive, pikin alive and proper care after dem born to avoid complications for both di mama and pikin.
Wit dis kain care, Dr Umoette alias Mama Birthsafe don help many pipo wey dey suffer from infertility issues achieve pregnancy and dis she say concern both di man and di women involved.
"To achieve pregnancy require equal contribution from both di man and di woman. But becos say di physical evidence of pregnancy dey mostly seen on di woman, majority of di times, di blame for infertility dey on di woman, but e go surprise you to know say more often than not, di reason wey make some couples neva get belle dey with di man."
Dr Idara say from experience as she dey work wit couples wey dey face dis challenge, she identify stress as a major factor wey dey cause infertility among couples, weda na wit di man or di woman.
"If you remove di stress factor, for most couples dem go achieve pregnancy. If dem man dey well rested and di women no get anytime wey go dey worry her, e no dey tay, dem don get belle.
"So wen we see couples wey dey battle infertility, I go just tell dem go on a honey moon. Take your wife out make una go relax for three weeks, for majority of dem, by di time dem return dem go say, ' ah doctor, my wife don get belle o!'"
Filmed and edited by Idara Monday
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Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
African gay men blame President Trump for their recent HIV diagnoses after he cut prevention funding
Gay men in Africa are blaming President Trump's decision to cut funding for HIV /AIDS prevention for their diagnoses of the virus. The administration's sweeping cuts to foreign aid have reduced access to medications like Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, which decreases the risk of contracting HIV by 99 percent. Emmanuel Cherem, 25, a gay men in Nigeria, told Reuters that he tested positive for HIV two months after losing access to the US-supplied drug. 'I blame myself... Taking care of myself is my first duty as a person,' he said. 'I equally blame the Trump administration because, you know, these things were available, and then, without prior notice, these things were cut off.' Echezona, 30, another gay man from Nigeria, told Reuters that he took PrEP pills daily for three years until he was told by a clinic worker that the drug was now only available to pregnant and lactating women. 'I just pray and wish that Trump actually changes his policy and everything comes back to normal so that the spread and transmission of the virus would be reduced,' he said. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office that paused foreign development assistance for 90 days, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a 'stop work order' to employees of the State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance. The department oversees the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which have seen drastic cuts since Trump took office. The administration has defended its position, arguing that other countries need to shoulder the burden of providing aid. During South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's White House visit, Trump acknowledged that the foreign aid cuts have been 'devastating.' 'Hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,' Trump added. 'I've talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and we've spent a lot,' he continued. 'And it's a big - it's a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.' Russell Vought, the director of the US Office of Management and Budget, echoed Trump's stance during a Congressional committee meeting in early June. He argued that African countries should take on the responsibility of fighting HIV/AIDS, alleviating the financial burden on the US. Vought added that some of the nonprofits facilitating HIV prevention programs 'are not geared toward the viewpoints of the administration.' The director's comments are in line with a waiver issued to PEPFAR programs on February 1 allowing prevention programs to restart only for pregnant mothers. Vulnerable populations, like members of the LGBTQIA+ community, sex workers, or injecting drug users, weren't included in the prevention measures. PEPFAR grants often covered the cost of clinics supplying PrEP at public health centers for these populations, which have suffered closures due to decreased funding. A spokesperson for the State Department told Reuters that PEPFAR-funded programs would continue to be reviewed for 'assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.' Public health officials and activists fear that if Trump's hardline policy toward foreign aid stays consistent, HIV infections will continue in the region. Linda-Gail Bekker, an HIV expert at the University of Cape Town, said that African countries may not cover the expense of supplying the drug, leaving a gap for more diagnoses. 'It's as predictable as if you take your eye off a smoldering bushfire and the wind is blowing: a bushfire will come back,' she told Reuters. Countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique were almost entirely dependent on US funding for HIV prevention measures, according to UNAIDS. Other countries, like Ethiopia, responded to the USAID funding cuts by introducing a new payroll tax to pay for HIV medication previously provided by US funding. Medical advancements for HIV prevention and treatment have progressed significantly in recent years. However, UNAIDS projects that gaps created by a lack of funding could see steps backward.


Reuters
15 hours ago
- Reuters
Insight: Trump aid cuts deal a blow to HIV prevention in Africa
June 20 (Reuters) - Emmanuel Cherem, a 25-year-old gay man in Nigeria, tested positive for HIV two months after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration cut access for at-risk groups like gay men and injecting drug users to medication that prevents infection. Cherem admits he should have been more careful about practicing safe sex but had become accustomed to using the U.S.-supplied pharmaceutical. The drug - known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP - is typically taken daily as a tablet and can reduce the risk of contracting HIV through sex by 99%. "I blame myself... Taking care of myself is my first duty as a person," Cherem said at his gym in Awka, the capital of Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra. "I equally blame the Trump administration because, you know, these things were available, and then, without prior notice, these things were cut off." Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid after taking office in January and halted grants by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency was responsible for implementing the bulk of the assistance under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the world's leading HIV/AIDS initiative. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. Trump's cuts have restricted the availability of drugs that millions of Africans have taken to prevent infection - particularly vulnerable communities such as gay men and sex workers - as aid groups and public health systems in Africa strove to roll back the disease. The number of initiations, or people who have taken at least one dose of the drug, rose in Africa from fewer than 700 in 2016 to more than 6 million by late 2024, according to PrEPWatch, opens new tab, a global tracker. More than 90% of new initiations last year were financed by PEPFAR, using cheap generic versions of the drug. Sub-Saharan Africa had 390,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2023, or 62% of the global total, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency. However, progress has been made: that death toll was down by 56% from 2010, according to the World Health Organization. Now, some of those who've lost access to the preventative medication because of U.S. cutbacks are already testing positive, according to 10 patients, health officials and activists. Restrictions on PrEP have coincided with dwindling supplies of more widely used HIV prevention tools like condoms and lubricants "because of the US funding cuts", according to a UNAIDS fact sheet, opens new tab from May. The combination is creating what nine activists and three medical experts described as a major threat to prevention across the continent. "I just see this as incredibly short-sighted because we were on a winning path," said Linda-Gail Bekker, an HIV expert at the University of Cape Town. She said that many African governments did not have the resources to spend on PrEP drugs on top of treatment for HIV infections, risking a worsening of the pandemic. "It's as predictable as if you take your eye off a smouldering bushfire and the wind is blowing: a bushfire will come back." Trump has said that the United States pays disproportionately for foreign aid and he wants other countries to shoulder more of the burden, as he seeks to reduce U.S. government spending across the board. The U.S. disbursed $65 billion in foreign assistance last year, nearly half of it via USAID, according to government data, opens new tab. "It's a question of who has primary responsibility for the health needs of citizens of other countries, and it's their own governments," said Max Primorac, a former senior USAID official who is now senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. "We all know, and this is a bipartisan issue, that aid dependency doesn't help these people - that the best solution is for these countries to be able to take over the responsibility of these programs." UNAIDS says the permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR-supported prevention and treatment programs could lead to an additional 2,300 new HIV cases globally per day. There were 3,500 new cases per day in 2023. Reuters spoke to 23 health workers, PrEP users and activists, nearly all of whom said that the increase in HIV infections since the funding cuts was impossible to quantify because many organisations working with vulnerable populations have been defunded. A State Department waiver issued on February 1 allowed some PEPFAR activities to restart, but only covered HIV prevention for mother-to-child transmission. That means PEPFAR-financed PrEP is no longer available for gay and bisexual men, sex workers and injecting drug users who are especially exposed to the virus. Many African governments had specifically targeted these groups in their PrEP programs. A spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees USAID and the PEPFAR program, told Reuters it "continues to support lifesaving HIV testing, care and treatment, and prevention of mother to child transmission services approved by the Secretary of State." "All other PEPFAR-funded services are being reviewed for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson did not directly respond to a question about why the waiver had excluded vulnerable groups from PrEP distribution. In East and Southern Africa, the sub-region that accounts for more than half of all people living with HIV, the U.S. had been funding nearly 45% of HIV prevention programming, UNAIDS said in March, opens new tab. Some countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique were almost entirely dependent on PEPFAR for their HIV prevention programs, the agency said. In some wealthier nations, like South Africa and Kenya, PEPFAR represented less than 25% of spending on HIV prevention. Russell Vought, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, told a Congressional committee on June 4 that, due to high U.S. debt levels, Africa needed to shoulder more of the burden in fighting AIDS. Asked specifically about restrictions on HIV prevention programs, Vought said: "We believe that many of these nonprofits are not geared toward the viewpoints of the administration." His office did not respond to a request for further details. Reuters spoke to four PrEP users in Nigeria, all gay or bisexual men, who have tested positive for HIV since January when they stopped being able to obtain more pills, after practicing unsafe sex. Hearty Empowerment and Rights (HER) Initiative, a community-based organisation in southeastern Nigeria, worked with other groups that provide HIV/AIDS services to confirm the men's diagnosis and help secure treatment for them, said executive director Festus Alex Chinaza. In Asaba, the capital of Nigeria's Delta state, Echezona, a 30-year-old gay man who took PrEP pills daily for more than three years, is struggling to come to terms with his HIV-positive test result, which he received in early May. He regrets that he had unprotected sex. "I just pray and wish that Trump actually changes his policy and everything comes back to normal so that the spread and transmission of the virus would be reduced," said Echezona, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of stigma. Like the other three men, he described being told by staff at community-based clinics that PrEP was only available to pregnant and lactating women, in line with the Trump administration guidelines. Nigeria has an adult HIV prevalence rate of 1.3% and an estimated 2 million people living with HIV, the fourth-highest total globally, according to UNAIDS. But for so-called key populations, the rates are much higher: 25% for men who have sex with men, according to a survey completed in 2021. The Nigerian health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the effects of the Trump administration's cuts to HIV prevention services. South Africa – which has an estimated 7.7 million people living with HIV, according to UNAIDS, the highest number in the world - pays for its own PrEP pills. But some clinics where so-called key populations obtained them relied on PEPFAR grants and have been forced to close in recent months. PrEP is also available for free at public health centers, but gay men and sex workers often avoid such facilities, fearing discrimination and harassment, nine activists said. Francois Venter, executive director of the Ezintsha medical research center at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said PrEP distribution from public sector clinics in the city had shown almost no increase since the Trump cuts. Foster Mohale, spokesperson for South Africa's health ministry, said the ministry was "not aware" of reports that key populations were avoiding health facilities due to stigma. "We have sensitized health officials across the country to create (a) conducive environment for all healthcare seekers/clients to access the service without feeling judged or discriminated against," he said.


Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Nigerian company to make HIV, malaria test kits after US funding cut
LAGOS, June 19 (Reuters) - Nigerian manufacturer Codix Bio Ltd plans to make millions of HIV and Malaria test kits at its new plant outside Lagos for the local and regional market to help fill gaps in the wake of cutbacks at U.S. donor agency USAID, a company executive said. The United States, the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, has cut funding for foreign assistance, half of which is delivered via USAID. The U.S. support to Nigeria, which reached $740 million in 2024 based on USAID data, is focused on preventing malaria and curbing HIV as well as delivering vaccines to local health centres across the country. It is not yet clear how Nigeria will be affected by the cuts. The Nigerian government has said it will raise funds to continue some of the programmes that donors supported. Codix Bio general manager Olanrewaju Balaja said the company will roll out kits later this month from its plant in partnership with the South Korean pharmaceutical producer SD Biosensor and support from the World Health Organization. The plant has an initial capacity to produce 147 million kits annually, but this can be expanded to over 160 million. "From the statistics of what is supplied (by USAID and PEPFAR) for a specific programme year, and looking at what we have currently in capacity for Nigeria, we have enough capacity to meet the demand," Balaja told Reuters. He said if the company scaled up operations, "we can go to West and Sub-Saharan Africa, including other African countries." Nigeria has the highest burden of malaria globally, according to WHO, with nearly 27% of the global burden. The country also has the world's fourth highest burden of HIV, according to UNAIDS. "The focus was for us to be able to play in the field of supply of rapid diagnostic test kits for donor agencies, which particularly USAID was at the forefront," Balaja added. Balaja said the Nigerian government and donor agencies like Global Fund were expected to purchase test kits from Codix Bio.