PREVALENCE OF HIV/AIDS EPIDEMICS IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATION ON THE ACHIEVEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

HIV pandemic has been one of the world's main threats to public health. Approximately 78 million individuals around the globe have been infected since it broke out, 36 million have died from AIDS-related diseases, while 36.9 million are presently living with the disease. Most of these victims are young people in their productive era, as current studies reveal. This research therefore explores the implications of HIV / AIDS incidence in achieving sustainable development in Nigeria. The data used were Adjusted Net Savings, prevalence of HIV total (ages, 15-65), Prevalence of HIV for female and male (ages 15-24), Financial development, consumer price index and per-capita income from 1990 to 2017. Situational analysis, Multiple Regression and the Johansen Cointegration test were employed. Findings revealed that HIV prevalence is widely spreading in Nigeria and the prevalence occur more in female than male. The regression result shows that HIV prevalence and consumer price index have negative impact on sustainable development, while per-capita income and financial development impacted positively on sustainable development. The cointegration result shows that a long run relationship exists between HIV prevalence and sustainable development. Therefore, HIV prevalence stand as impediment towards achieving sustainable development in Nigeria. The study recommends that government should increase funding and scale up services that will help prevent the epidemics. Also, elimination of gender inequality in employment need to be addressed so as to reduce the rate of sex workers and helps keep both the male and female youth healthy for the attainment of SDGs come 2030.