Niger HIV community battles use of anti-retroviral drugs on empty stomachs
People living with HIV in Nigeria's Niger State are struggling to maintain their medication regimens due to severe food insecurity and rising inflation. Many are forced to skip meals, making it difficult to take antiretroviral drugs that require a full stomach.
Why it matters
This highlights the intersection of economic instability and public health, where food inflation directly threatens the efficacy of life-saving medical treatments.
In the shorthand that families in Nigeria have long used to describe how they eat, a “1” stands for a meal taken and a “0” for one skipped. For years, many households living with HIV in Niger State say they managed “1-0-1” – eating something for breakfast, nothing for lunch, something again for dinner. These days, Mrs Janet Linus Sakpe, the Niger State Coordinator of Women living with HIV and AIDs who works with the more vulnerable community of people living with HIV in the state, puts it plainly, “We are no longer doing 1-0-1. Now we are doing 0-1-0.” One meal. Sometimes none at all, with some having no certainty about where that single meal will come from.
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