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Abstract
Men who have sex with men in sub-Saharan Africa continue to have a disproportionately higher burden of HIV than their counterparts in the general population. In this qualitative study, barriers to participants accessing healthcare services in Nigeria, a country where same-sex relationships are criminalised and considered societally abhorrent, were explored. Four focus group discussions and 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with HIV-positive men who have sex with men recruited from 3 NGOs in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria in 2016. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically using NVivo. The findings of this study revealed the numerous barriers these men encounter accessing general (government and private) healthcare facilities. Data were organised into two categories: barriers associated with the wider legal context in relation to HIV-positive men who have sex with men and those with service delivery. There were barriers reported in relation to accessing an emerging service, which had hitherto sought to address some barriers encountered in general healthcare facilities. Findings point to the importance of facilitating a more enabling social and political environment whereby men who have sex with men can freely access healthcare services, potentially through these facilities.
Notes
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Heartland Alliance, the Population Council and the International Centre for the Advocacy for Rights to Health for their support in this study. The authors also acknowledge the important contributions of the study participants, without whom this research would have been impossible.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Referring to antiretroviral medications.
2 Olu, a Lagos FGD participant, narrates his conversation with the doctor at the specialist clinic he attends in Lagos.
3 ICARH stands for the International Centre for the Advocacy for Rights to Health.
4 Among men who have sex with men, ‘you don carry’ is slang for ‘you are HIV-positive’.