{"id":30411,"date":"2026-03-31T09:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=30411"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:53:52","slug":"nigerian-hiv-volunteers-keep-patients-alive-with-door-to-door-campaign","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerian-hiv-volunteers-keep-patients-alive-with-door-to-door-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian HIV volunteers\u00a0keep patients alive with door to door campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For several months last year, Josephine Angev walked the dusty village paths of Nigeria’s Benue State with a mission, to help people living with HIV stay on their life-saving medication, after a United States (US) aid freeze left thousands scrambling for supplies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 40-year-old is one \u200bof dozens of volunteer “HIV champions” who went door-to-door to bring patients back into care when their access to antiretroviral drugs was disrupted, tending to those whose condition can still bring shame and \u200cstigma.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some patients didn’t realise the risks if they stopped. “They don’t understand the implications,” Angev said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If people living with HIV stop taking antiretroviral drugs, which suppress the virus, it rebounds.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This puts them at risk of HIV-related illnesses within months, and also means they can transmit the virus to others.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Angev made multiple visits to a 65-year-old woman who had stopped taking medication once her supplies ran out. Then she became ill. Today, thanks to Angev’s interventions, she is back on her drugs, and doing well.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her story is just one example of\u00a0\u200bhow people fared in the wake of aid cuts that upended the global HIV response in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Other rich states joined the US in cutting aid, forcing a reckoning for countries that had relied on it \u200bheavily.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nigeria responded with a $200 million health funding package within six weeks that included HIV.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The US government also issued a waiver for “life-saving” aid in February 2025, including antiretrovirals. \u2060But crucially, volunteers also bridged the gaps.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15535,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30411","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigeria helping people living with HIV","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30413,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30411\/revisions\/30413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}