By Francesca Hangeior.

A Nigerian man, Salisu Ahmed, has opened up on how he lived with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus for 31 years.

In a recent interview with reality star, Doyin David, Ahmed disclosed that he contracted the virus after his first extramarital affair.

The 66-year-old shared the challenges he faced, including the stigma of being denied access to shared facilities, losing his teaching job, and being abandoned by his wife and children.

“I am Salisu Ahmed, I have been living with this virus for 31 years. The first experiment of going outside my matrimonial home is how it happened. It has been proven that about 85 to 90 per cent of people living with HIV contracted this thing through sexual intercourse.

“I was denied the use of the bathroom of the compound, I was not allowed to access the toilet, I was formerly a teacher so I was asked honourably to stop coming to the school.

“She packed everything including the children at home, they left me,” he stated.

He was cured of HIV following a stem cell transplant.
According to a statement from the City of Hope Medical Center in the US, where the procedure was performed, the man entered remission after discontinuing antiretroviral therapy.

The centre noted that the patient became the fourth person in the world, and the oldest, to achieve long-term remission from HIV after receiving stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.

Benue state government said it has recorded 20 suspected cases of Mpox with four of the cases confirmed.

The State Epidemiologist, Dr Asema Msuega, who disclosed this to newsmen on Thursday in Makurdi, said three of the cases have been treated and discharged while the fourth case was just confirmed last week Friday, September 6, 2024.

He said “For this year up-to-date, we have 20 suspected cases of Mpox and four confirmed cases in Benue State.

“Initially, we have three confirmed cases that were treated and discharged from isolation center, the fourth case was just confirmed last week Friday from the reference laboratory.”

According to him, the fourth patient who is still in isolation is receiving treatment and responding well.

He said the confirmed cases are from two local government areas of the state including Makurdi and Gwer West adding “But for the suspected cases, they cut across five local government areas of the state; Ushongo, Kastina-Ala, Gboko, Makurdi and Gwer West.

“The most recent is from Gwer East which sample we have sent to the laboratory and awaiting result before the end of this week.”

Msuega who stated that many of the suspected cases have also come out of isolation, explained that “it’s not every case that we take to hospital for isolation, we advised some to self isolate at home just like we were doing during the outbreak of COVID-19.”

He said the patients are being treated at the isolation center of the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) the government is carrying out massive awareness campaigns to educate people about the disease and to imbibe basic prevention and control measures including washing of hands, avoiding unnecessary contacts with people, especially suspected person.

While harping on early detection and reporting, Msuega urged the Benue public to report suspected cases to appropriate authorities especially the nearest health centres, be it primary, secondary or tertiary health centres.

Striking resident doctors yesterday ended their seven-day industrial action.

The strike was meant to persuade the government and security agencies to rescue one of their colleagues, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola-Olawale, who has been in her abductors’ den since December 27, last year.

The warning strike, which began on August 26, faced strong opposition from the Federal Government, which threatened to enforce a ‘no work, no pay’ policy against their doctors.

The government expressed disappointment over the union’s decision to embark on the strike, claiming that despite being informed of the various steps it was taking to address the situation, the union still went on strike.

Despite this threat, the doctors saw the strike to its end.

Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) President Dele Abdullahi said the association would reassess the Federal Government’s actions over the next three weeks to ensure meaningful progress.

He said: “We are suspending the strike now. We will be meeting to review the progress the government has made in the next three weeks. “