- NIMR’s research director, Dr. Agatha, expressed concern over HIV low test rate amongst youth
- She emphasized the need to address challenges faced by young adults
- NIMR DG, Prof. Obafunwa, appealed to the media to strengthen outreach progress
EKOHOTBLOG reports that according to a research study conducted by the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), adolescents and young adults non-compliance to preventive and therapy treatments options remain a major barrier to Nigeria’s goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.
The Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa, highlighted the need for increased awareness creation among adolescent and young adults in Nigeria over the danger of non-compliance to HIV preventive measures and therapy modules for non-carriers and carriers respectively.
At the monthly media chat held on Wednesday, August 27, 2025, the lead researcher on the study; Health and Wellbeing of Adolescents and Young Adults Living With HIV, Dr. David Agatha, presented the details of the research outcome.
Dr. Agatha David, a research fellow at NIMR, explained that Adolescents and young adults living with Human Immune Virus (HIV) have the worst treatment outcomes of all age groups, and are not on track to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goal for 2025, which states that 95 percent of people living with HIV should know their status, 95 percent of those on antiretroviral therapy should be virally suppressed, which is essential to meeting SDG 3 goal of ending HIV by 2030.
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”Adolescents and young adults living with HIV have the worst indices in terms of treatment output, their testing rates are very low, their adherence to treatment is very low, and so their virus suppression is low.”
“In Nigeria, studies have shown that Adolescents and young adults testing rate is less than 25 percent. So if they are not testing, we don’t know how many of them are infected and the astonishing figures we found of new HIV cases among these adolescents, we have a lot of work in our hand. And when we do reach them, and they are enrolled into care, for various reasons, they do not take them.” She said.
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Furthermore, NIMR’s research director stressed that without addressing this unique challenges faced by adolescents and young adults, Nigeria’s fight against HIV will continue to face setbacks, ultimately threatening the achievement and of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 by 2030.
In conclusion, Dr. Agatha appealed to the media to be more involved in sensitizing young people about HIV testing through jingles, awareness campaigns, to strengthen outreach and accelerate progress.
