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                Nigeria Doctors' Strike Threatens HIV/AIDS Care

   by Heather Murdock

   Nearly a month into a nationwide doctor's strike, HIV/AIDS patients in
   some parts of northern Nigeria say health care is rapidly declining,
   and they have become largely dependent upon foreign aid organizations.
   Doctors say the strike is the only way they know to rescue Nigeria's
   flailing healthcare system, but nurses accuse strikers of abandoning
   public care in favor of more lucrative private practices.

   The [1]Nigerian Medical Association said about 30,000 members have been
   on strike since the beginning of July, breaking the strike only to
   provide emergency care for victims of frequent insurgent attacks.

   But HIV patients say they need life-saving care just as much as victims
   of terrorism.

   Benjamin Daniel leads a network of people living with HIV or AIDS in
   the northern city of Kaduna.  He said some HIV/AIDS patients have
   already been turned away from emergency care and as the strike drags
   on, more people are getting sick.

   "This doctors' strike actually affected lives of people living with HIV
   and AIDS in Kaduna State and if the government doesn't do anything
   about it, definitely, I'm telling you, we don't know the fate of our
   people," said Daniel.

   In Kaduna Wednesday, doctors broke their strike to treat injured
   victims of a double bombing that killed 44 people.  When those patients
   were stable, they left.

   Nigeria's official HIV infection rate is more than four percent and
   some doctors say that rate is grossly underestimated.

   But HIV/AIDS drugs are still available, said the executive secretary of
   Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency, Halliru Musa Abubakar, because they
   don't need doctors to distribute medicine.

   "We are trying as much as possible to see that the strike doesn't
   effect negatively the patient access to the drugs.  So, so far we have
   not had any problem in the state," he noted.

   While strikes are common tools for negotiation in Nigeria, this is the
   first time the Nigerian Medical Association has called a nationwide
   strike, union officials say.  The strike will continue, they add, until
   the government provides more resources to hospitals.

   Union members say without these resources the Nigerian hospital system
   will collapse in a matter of years.

   [2]The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives has called
   the strike "selfish," saying doctors are trying divert patients into
   their own expensive private clinics.

   Andy Bako is a local coordinator of the [3]Association of Vulnerable
   Children in Nigeria.  He blames the government for the strike, saying
   its refusal to negotiate with doctors puts everyone at risk.

   "For children that fall sick from time to time certainly they don't
   access treatment.  Because they go to the conventional hospitals to
   receive treatment.  There's no doctors.  It's really affecting them,"
   said Bako.

   Bako said HIV/AIDS patients still have a modicum of care because
   foreign aid organizations are still operating.  However, he said,
   dependency on groups that could potentially leave Nigeria because of
   the growing Boko Haram insurgency is as dangerous as it is frightening.
   Ibrahima Yakubu contributed to this report from Kaduna.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [4]http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-doctors-strike-threatens-hiv-
   aids-care/1965117.html

References

   1. http://nationalnma.org/
   2. http://nannm.org/
   3. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-for-Orphans-and-Vulnerable-Children-in-Nigeria-AONN/140718209344251
   4. http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-doctors-strike-threatens-hiv-aids-care/1965117.html