CURBING THE WEB: AN ANALYTICAL EXPLANATION FOR HIV/AIDS MITIGATION AMONG YOUTH IN NIGERIA

The realities of HIV/AIDS have been one of the major developmental challenges of developing nations. The pernicious scourge is accountable for enormous death tolls and morbidity. It also has explosive power which sets all nations in health crisis. HIV/AIDS affects all facets of the society but with the youth bearing the greatest of the brunt. The Nigerian youth are also immersed in the causal web of HIV/AIDS pandemic. Hence, they are grossly devastated by the increasing rate of the scourge. Unfortunately, the pandemic does not only depict a vicissitude of kind of sexual relation but also incorporates the implosion of other social correlates which are vital but often neglected in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The youth strives in the positive and definite hypothesis of the social correlates which deeply explain their immense vulnerabilities. It is within this web of social correlates that HIV/AIDS survives and threatens the overall development process. The paper conceives HIV/AIDS as a social problem but with peculiar manifestation as embodiment of influence of other social ills. The paper therefore provides an analytical framework which explains vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS among the youth. The polemics dwell on the notion that the social conditions of the youth provide permissive epidemiological stance for the spread of HIV/AIDS. Structured within a political economy perspective, the paper explores the multiple indicators in the social production of HIV/AIDS and provides a more holistic approach in HIV/AIDS mitigation among the youth.