More than 20 people are gathered in the corridor outside Dr Remi Kalejaiye’s clinic in a Lagos military hospital, waiting to take part in Africa’s first serious attempt to head off an Aids/HIV epidemic.
Nigeria is conducting large-scale trials of generic drugs in a bid to stop its massive population from being the next to fall victim to the scourge which is decimating populations in southern and eastern Africa.
Dr Kalejaiye is broadly happy with the tests, he says, as he demonstrates how those taking part in drugs trials are first tested for blood cell count and liver functions.
But elsewhere in the country doubts remain as to Nigeria’s ability to cope with what may become its biggest new challenge.
”It is all going even better than we might have expected,” Kalejaiye said. ”The results we are getting back from patients are very positive. I have lots of people lining up for this.”
Compared to the worst hit countries of eastern and southern Africa, Nigeria has a lower level of HIV/Aids, with some 5,8% of the sexually active population infected, according to the latest health ministry figures.
But in a country with more than 120-million people that figure represents 3,47-million sick people, and health experts fear that once the epidemic becomes generalised beyond high risk groups the crisis could explode to become Africa’s largest.
The key to avoiding this disastrous scenario could be the use of generic drugs — antiretrovirals to control the effects of the virus — imported from India and much cheaper than their brand-name Western equivalents.
The drugs are due to be licensed for general use in July, but doctors say the Nigerian testing programme has been patchy and question marks remain about the health services’ ability to reach all those in need.
Mohammed Farouk, national coordinator for the pressure group Nigerian Aids Alliance, said his group ”is not satisfied with the application of the trial, especially the monitoring and evaluation, counselling and the competence of the trial doctors.”
”Some of the doctors are not trained in giving these drugs and they do not carry out the necessary counselling,” he said.
Other members of the alliance alleged that they were being charged for taking the drugs used in the trials, in violation of the regulations.
In the northern city of Kano, in one of the worst areas of the country for HIV infection, doctors complained that testing began late and that not enough drugs had been supplied to meet demand.
Kano State health commissioner, Mansur Kabir, said: ”The trial programme is yet to start at the state level and it is therefore a bit early to make any comment.”
At the federal government-owned Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, the hospital’s chief medical director, Sadiq Wali, told AFP: ”We only started the trials a month ago.”
The programme’s coordinator in Kano, Suleiman Ibrahim, said: ”The drugs are yet to be supplied in abundance and as much as we can exhaust.”
But in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and Africa’s most populous city, doctors were more confident, saying the trials had gone well and predicting that the drugs would be soon approved for widespread use.
”The trial is going well and we are collating the information,” said Dr Charles Okany, the head of the HIV/Aids unit at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, one of the trial’s main centres.
”We have enough drugs to give our patients and the patients are enthusiastic,” Okany said.
India where they are made by drugs manufacturers Cipla and Rambazy. Cipla’s drugs recently won World Health Organisation approval. – Sapa-AFP