By Pascal Ibe
Claim
A social media influencer, @aproko_doctor, in his post, claimed that Nigeria has the second highest number of persons living with HIV in the world.
Verdict
This claim is FALSE. Checks showed that the social media influencer used 2015 data from UNICEF to validate his claim. According to Statista, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa are countries with the highest rates of HIV
Full Text
A social media influencer, @aproko_doctor, claimed that Nigeria has the second-highest number of persons living with HIV in the world.
Aprok Doctor is a popular Nigerian medical practitioner who always counsels people on healthy living.
His post reads, “Trump cutting funds to PEPFAR, what does it mean?
*“Nigeria has the world’s second highest number of people living with HIV.*
“If you don’t treat HIV, almost everyone affected will develop AIDS.
“To treat HIV, they need ART drugs, and these drugs have become so effective that an HIV-positive person can no longer transmit the virus if the level of the virus is suppressed.
“These drugs are expensive, so a lot of the drugs available are donated to us.
“Now that donation has been cut, what does this mean?
“If Nigeria doesn’t rise to the occasion and take charge:
1. Infections will rise, currently it’s close to 200000 infections every year
2. People will die from AIDS if drugs are not available.
3. Our already burdened healthcare system will be burdened further which might be make or break.
“These are just a snippet of the ripple effect. Let’s not forget that diseases like tuberculosis and malaria are also being affected by the pause in funding.
“Now is the time to take our health system seriously, the second best time was yesterday.
“Nigeria can not continue to depend on donations for its healthcare.
The post generated over 1m views and more than 5k reposts, according to X analytics.
See the original post on this here.
Background
Aproko Doctor was reacting to the latest ban on HIV funding for Nigeria and other countries by the new Trump administration.
On Tuesday, The US government suspended financial support for HIV treatment programmes in Nigeria and other developing countries following an executive order issued by former President Donald Trump.
This decision has led to a 90-day halt in disbursements from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a US initiative providing HIV/AIDS treatment across Africa and other regions. The move stems from an executive order signed on Trump’s first day in office which directed all government agencies managing foreign development aid to pause the distribution of funds.
PEPFAR, with an annual budget of $6.5 billion, delivers life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment to over 20.6 million people globally. Since its inception, the programme has reportedly saved 26 million lives, making it a cornerstone of global health efforts.
According to NPR, the suspension of PEPFAR funding could last for at least three months unless the programme receives an exemption. Public health experts are now raising concerns about the potential long-term effects, with fears that the Trump administration might entirely terminate the program.
Verification
Checks on the comment section of the post indicated that @aproko_doctor used data from UNICEF to validate his claim
But FACTWATCH Nigeria traced this data by UNICEF and discovered that it was 2015 data.
A credible statistics organization, Statista, in a report published in 2024, disclosed that among all countries worldwide those in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest rates of HIV. The countries with the highest rates of HIV include Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa. In 2023, Eswatini had the highest prevalence of HIV with a rate of around 25 percent. Other countries, such as Zimbabwe, have significantly decreased their HIV prevalence. Community-based HIV services are considered crucial to the prevention and treatment of HIV.
Nigeria wasn’t mentioned as a top country on the list.
Breaking it down further, an international Development a
Aid, while quoting Statista, noted that Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits the highest rates of HIV globally, with Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa leading in the number of adults infected with the virus.
In December 2024, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria announced that no fewer than 1.6 million out of the two million people living with HIV in Nigeria are currently receiving treatment.
The UNAIDS 2023 report shows that approximately 160,000 children aged 0–14 are living with HIV, with 22,000 new infections and 15,000 AIDS-related deaths occurring each year. Despite progress, Nigeria’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission and pediatric HIV coverage remains below 33 percent, well below the 95 percent target.
Conclusion
This claim is FALSE as Aproko Doctor used 2015 outdated data from UNICEF to validate that Nigeria is the second highest country with persons living with HIV in January 2025.
