“In Cameroon, 75% of adolescents who are newly infected with HIV are female” , Beta Tinz, a blogger and social media influencer wrote on Facebook
The post might not have gone too viral with just 65 likes but it is enough to cause hate and derail public opinion as evident in the comments made after the Facebook post. Beta Tinz also has a followership of more than one hundred and eleven thousand followers.
We contacted Beta Tins via Facebook messenger and email for her source so we could further check the statistics but received no reply three days after. We decided to verify the assertion because such a post stigmatizes women who are more exposed to HIV. It is also capable of scaring them away from screening which impedes the fight against the disease and might become an obstacle to WHO’s goal of ending HIV as a public health threat by 2030.
WHAT DO AVAILABLE FIGURES REVEAL?
The earliest figures about HIV new infections in Cameroon are for the year 2022. They date to May 2023. For 2023, the data is still being collected and will be available according to a program by the National Aids Control Committee. The annual report states that, “In Cameroon, the number of Persons Living with HIV estimated in 2022 was 480,228 (Report of estimates and HIV projections 2023), including 29,168 (6%) children under 15 and 319,583 (66%) women” thus, BetaTinz exaggerated the figures by putting it at 75 percent.
Statistics from UNAIDS (UNAIDS is leading the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals), dating to 2022, show 4600 new infections recorded for women aged 15 , representing 65.66 percent of 9.900 new HIV infections documented in 2022.
https://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/cameroon
We also spoke to the Communication Officer at the National Aids Control Committee, Simon Pierre Essoumba. He said that the National AIDS Control Committee publishes its annual reports at the end of every year. Therefore what is available at the moment are statistics for 2022, those for 2023 are still being processed.
CONCLUSION
Beta Tinz Facebook page lied about the figures of new infections. They exaggerated the figures to 75 percent whereas official figures stand at 66 percent.
Chansiline Nanze
