Nigerian AIDS patients marry to help stop spread of virus

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — With her golden dress shimmering in the sun and ornate henna tattoos covering her hands, Hauwa Idris is the picture of a radiant Nigerian bride. But her betrothal has hardly been typical: Both bride and groom are infected with the deadly AIDS virus and have been encouraged to wed by an unusual government program.

Bauchi State, in Nigeria’s heavily Muslim north, has recently begun playing Cupid with its HIV sufferers, encouraging them to marry by offering counseling and cash toward their big day. The goal: to halt the spread of HIV in the non-infected population.

“We live in a polygamous society where divorce is common and condom use is low,” says Yakubu Usman Abubakar, an official working with the Bauchi Action Committee on AIDS, which runs the program. “If we can stop those who have the disease spreading it to those who don’t have the disease, then obviously it will come under control.”

The plan had seen 93 “positive” couples married since its inception about two years ago. Idris, aged 32, and her beaming husband, 39-year-old Umar Ahmed, are couple No. 94.

“I’m very happy to see my wedding day,” laughs Idris shyly. “I never expected I was going to marry because of my (HIV) status. But now I am happy and thank God that now we have a solution ... we can marry within ourselves.”

Idris and Ahmed’s eyes met across a crowded clinic waiting room as they queued to collect their anti-retroviral HIV therapy pills. They exchanged phone numbers and the courtship began.

Two months later, Ahmed asked Idris’ parents for her hand in marriage. It was granted and a dowry of $68 agreed upon. As an incentive to carry it off, the Bauchi group contributed $225 toward the cost of the couple setting up home together, no small amount in a country where over half the population live on $1 a day.

The outreach program won’t be formalized until 2009, and no budget figures exist yet. The state doesn’t seek to introduce HIV-infected people, since that would entail revealing private medical data, but when officials hear of HIV lovers, they step in quickly to encourage a legal union.

Around 4 million of Nigeria’s 140 million people are living with HIV — the second largest HIV population in the world, according to Britain’s foreign development agency. Prevalence rates have dropped slightly in the past three years to around 4 percent, but health experts warn the country still has a lot of work to do.