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Issue 22, February 2007
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Welcome to the readers of  ,
the monthly newsletter from the MSD Interpharma HIV Team.
This month, HIV@MSD takes you to Bonny Island in southern Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. Here, despite the billions of dollars' worth of oil being pumped from the area every year, the local people still struggle with poverty and disease, especially HIV/AIDS and malaria. In this article we describe a new public-private partnership led by the Ibani-se HIV/AIDS Initiative which uses community empowerment to tackle the disease burden in a comprehensive manner.
During the oil boom of the 1970s Nigeria helped found OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and billions of dollars generated by production in the oil-rich Niger Delta started flowing freely into the country's coffers. However, most of these earnings did not, and still do not, benefit the local populations. Consequently, Nigeria is the only oil-rich country in the world to be in debt.
Bonny Island, on the coast of Nigeria's Rivers State, has seen many environmental changes since the arrival of major oil and gas companies.
With its 30,000 indigenous people and its expanded population of 100,000 expatriates from Europe, the USA, and other countries, Bonny is a mere drop in the ocean of Nigeria's 131 million inhabitants.
Nigeria is big in many ways:
It has one of the world's largest natural gas and petroleum reserves.
It is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter.
It is the 9th most populous country in the world, accounting for one fifth of the total African population.
Due to its oil resources and its huge population, Nigeria is the 4th economic power in Africa, after South Africa, Algeria and Egypt
There is a total of 250 languages spoken in Nigeria (same estimated number of ethnic groups).
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Bonny is a microcosm of the national situation. Despite generating billions of dollars every year, the community does not live any better here than elsewhere in Africa. Poverty, lack of education and widespread diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, cholera and HIV all shorten the local's life expectancy.
The Ibani-se HIV/AIDS Initiative is a not-for-profit NGO aiming to change community behavior around HIV/AIDS, while improving people's overall living conditions. Its unique approach involves community empowerment and broad stakeholder involvement Click here to know more...
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Lettre d'information HIV@MSD en français