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Nigeria men's health network programme for the prevention of HIV and STIs among men who have sex with men (MSM)
A. Karlyn1, S. Adebajo1, S. Kellerman2, C. Nwachukwu1, W. Tun2
1Population Council, Abuja, Nigeria, 2Population Council, New York, United States
Background: There remains considerable stigma and discrimination towards men who have sex with men (MSM) in Nigeria. Though work has documented particularly high risk behaviours, there remain limited services promoting healthy sexual behaviour amongst these populations. Health care providers are largely unaware of the special needs of MSM and nearly all available health education messages focus on vertical, iatrogenic and heterosexual vaginal transmission of HIV/STI with no mention of the risks involved in either heterosexual or homosexual unprotected anal sex. To address this gap Population Council, Nigeria designed and implemented the Nigeria Men's Health Network (NMHN), the first comprehensive prevention intervention programme focussing on high risk men.
Method: The NMHN employs multiple integrated approaches to create demand for and availability of “hassle free” health and social services through the provision of a comprehensive HIV prevention package to bring about behaviour change, change community norms, improve access to and quality of community-Based Care and Treatment (HCT) and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STI) services and to reduce HIV risk among men engaged in high risk. Techniques used to achieve these goals include mapping of MSM networks to employ social network approaches as a strategy for dissemination of health information and to increase demand for health and prevention services among high risk men, social franchising of health services to allow recognition of MSM-friendly health services by those in need, and electronic data collection in the form of smart cards to ensure appropriate data collection for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
Results: Preliminary work has documented that despite prevailing homophobia, there is willingness by partners to move forward with provision of quality care and prevention for MSM.
Conclusions: MSM continue to suffer disproportionately from stigma and discrimination and to have disproportionately high rates of HIV. MSM specific health and prevention interventions are essential but require creative approaches.
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