Challenges and impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on men that have sex with men in accessing healthcare services in Nigeria

Background: Men with sex with men (MSM) may face obstacles in accessing culturally competent and quality healthcare services since current medical practice does not often promote discussing sexual habits. The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has further affected this group. This study assessed the impacts of COVID-19 and the general challenges of MSM in Benue State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This study was a quantitative cross-sectional survey conducted across three geopolitical zones of Benue State using a multistage cluster sampling method to collect data from MSM. The data collected were analyzed using IBM-Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS) version 25.0 for Windows IBM Corp., Armonk, New York. Result: More than half (59.2%) of respondents said they were not denied healthcare services, and 78.4% were not afraid to seek them. Most (88%) were comfortable seeking medical help, and 61.6% did not experience stigmatization from healthcare providers. Many (68.0%) were not exposed to violence after sharing their status with healthcare providers. About half (50.4%) said COVID-19 did not affect their general quality of life. Over half (51.2%) said there was a decline in access to resources like food and money during the pandemic, 49.6% experienced difficulties accessing HIV testing, and 52.0% could not access PrEP. More than half (53.6%) reported challenges getting viral load or other laboratory tests, but 57.5% had no trouble getting HIV medication prescriptions. Conclusion: The Federal Government, and the Ministry of Health, Nigeria, should support intervention programs, peer educators, and outreach workers providing services to MSM

Expanding access to viral load testing in Nigeria; the impact of third party logistics

Background: Access to viral load testing in Nigeria remains a key challenge in achieving the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90:90:90 targets in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This study investigates the impact of 3 party logistics (3PL) on expanding access to viral load testing.Methods: This exploratory, case study research was carried out in Abuja in December, 2018, using in-depth interview method. Open-ended questions were used to interview nine staff from the three polymerase chain reaction laboratories in Federal Capital Territory. The audios of interviews were recorded and transcribed on paper. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 24.Results: This study revealed that the adoption of 3PL services has helped to overcome major challenges of viral load testing such as late delivery of samples, late collection of results, and rejection problems; thereby reduced sample rejection frequencies, increased efficiency, reduced turnaround time and ease viral load testing processes. Though the adoption of 3PL has helped to overcome major challenges of viral load testing, however, the challenges still facing viral load testing include the 3PLs bringing samples at any time-even at closing hours, not delivering results to facilities on time after pickup, poor medical backgrounds and inability of 3PLs to enforce instructions on facilities. However, respondents expressed satisfaction with the services of the 3PLs.Conclusions: The findings of this study revealed that the adoption of 3PL service into viral load transport logistics has positive impacts on the process. However, only one of the laboratories uses two 3PL providers while other two use only one.