Assessment of The Levels of Socio-Economic Impact of HIV on Infected Individuals in Lagos, Nigeria in The Era of Global Access

The study utilized cross-sectional design to evaluate the impact of HIV infection on the socioeconomic lives of patients seen between Jan and Dec 2010, who have been on HIV treatment for more than 5 years at a HIV treatment Centre in Lagos. A semi structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on patient’s perceived stigma and discrimination on individuals, household and at the workplace and its effect on their finances before and after diagnosis. Close ended questions were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V17) and the open ended questions analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that various factors such as income, stigma and discrimination had an impact on the lives of HIV positive persons. The findings showed that the average monthly income dropped from N34, 387.14 before their HIV diagnosis to N29, 395.19 after the diagnosis which indicated a net decrease of 14.5%. Factors such asincome, stigma and discrimination had a negative impact on the HIV infected individuals. Support should be more individualistic rather than being provided on a large scale basis.