Nigeria 1, Village people 0
Nigeria’s HIV problem might be getting a preventive solution soon
Good morning, Big Brains. It’s my third day back on the job, and I’ve already fallen ill again. I can’t tell if something is in the air or if it is just my body’s way of telling me it misses our little break from capitalism. I hope you’re having a better day than I am.
- Margaret
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Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigeria’s HIV problem might be getting a preventive solution soon
The UAE is changing its visa conditions for Nigeria
The Big Deal
Nigeria’s HIV problem might be getting a preventive solution soon
There are a million and one village-people-inspired problems Nigeria faces daily, but thanks to some smart pharma guys, we might be ticking a major one off that list soon.
Global Fund, a multilateral financing organisation that’s been fighting HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria like crazy, just signed a deal with a pharmaceutical company, Gilead, to supply a “game-changing” HIV prevention drug called lenacapavir to low and middle-income countries.
And when we say “game-changing,” we’re not just throwing words around. The Global Fund says that this is the first time in history that low—and middle-income countries will have access to an HIV prevention drug at the same time as rich countries.
The drug, sold under the brand name Yeztugo, is effective enough to slash the risk of HIV transmission by over 99.9%. Unlike many other HIV prevention drugs, Yeztugo requires only two injections yearly to achieve the same prevention result.
The Global Fund says its goal for this rollout is to reach two million people. The first batch is expected to land in at least one African country before the end of this year. If all goes well, it’ll spark what it calls a “transformational shift” in how HIV prevention is done in places with the biggest HIV burden.
Why is this a big deal?
In 2020, Nigeria had the fourth highest number of people living with HIV in the world, with more than 1.8 million people affected. Not much has changed since then, except the amount of foreign aid available to manage the spread of HIV in the country.
On Tuesday, January 28, US President Donald Trump slashed the funds that help send malaria, HIV, tuberculosis drugs, and essential medical supplies to countries where the US Agency for International Development (USAID) operates. Nigeria was one of the countries on the list. This probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if the US weren’t such a major donor to Nigeria. In December 2024 alone, Nigeria received $1 billion in foreign aid from the US government.
According to the former head of global health at USAID, Atul Gawande, the funding cut meant that Nigerians already living with HIV faced a higher risk of their health getting worse. And for those who were HIV-free, it increased the chances of being exposed to drug-resistant strains of the virus. These risks are still very much valid because there are funding gaps that Nigeria has yet to close.
Typically, HIV patients need to be administered pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP daily to prevent the chances of HIV transmission, but the Global Fund is offering a less intense solution, which is why this is such a big deal.
This kind of long-lasting protection could make a huge difference in Nigeria, where the healthcare system is already facing multiple challenges, and many people don’t have easy access to clinics. It could help reduce the number of new HIV infections, prevent people from dropping out of treatment, and finally slow down the spread of the virus across the country.
There’s no way to predict which country would get the first batch of the drug, but given that the Global Fund has a generous history of giving Nigeria aid, we might get lucky.
The UAE is changing its visa conditions for Nigeria
You know those one million other village-people-inspired problems we mentioned earlier? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is giving one of them an upgrade.
On Tuesday, July 8, the UAE imposed new travel restrictions on Nigerian passport holders, and things are not looking that great.
According to a circulating memo from Dubai immigration, Nigerians between 18 and 45 can no longer apply for a solo tourist visa unless they’re travelling with family or as part of a group.
And it’s not just Gen Zs and millennials that are at the receiving end of these restrictions. Nigerians who are 45 and above must now present six months of personal bank statements showing at least $10,000 (or its naira equivalent) for each month.
The UAE is also shutting the door on transit visa applications for Nigerian passport holders entirely. That means even those who just want to catch a connecting flight through Dubai to other destinations can’t do so anymore. For a city that’s considered one of the world's transit capitals, this is a crazy restriction.
Travel experts are already saying this new policy will heavily reduce the number of Nigerians travelling to Dubai. And honestly, it’s not hard to see why. Between these insane financial demands and the naira’s usual mood swings, many people will scratch Dubai off their list of dream destinations and consider other places with friendlier visa conditions.
This came just hours after US President Donald Trump also tightened the travel restrictions on Nigerians by cutting down how long tourists and business visitors from Nigeria can stay in the United States.
2025 keeps hitting us with immigration laws that inspire more confusion than confidence, and we fear that the worst is yet to come, especially if the Nigerian government doesn’t step up its diplomacy game by reviewing its own strict visa laws.
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