Coronavirus heightens anxiety among LGBTQ Nigerians with HIV
by Bernard Dayo An HIV counsellor takes a patient's blood sample during an HIV-testing procedure in Lagos Lagos, Nigeria - When Andrew* first found out he was HIV-positive in January this year, he suffered a fleeting sense of paralysis, fearing his life was about to change forever. At 27, it was one of the things he dreaded as a gay man who was still in the closet. Even within the Nigerian LGBT community, HIV discrimination is rife and Andrew noticed no one would reply to him on the dating apps he used when he changed his status. In the weeks after his diagnosis, he developed a routine to deal with the illness: religiously taking his HIV medication and practising celibacy . Andrew is a software developer who views the world through a prism of codes and programs, and as the coronavirus pandemic became very real, with Nigeria comfirming its first case of contagion in February, he felt uneasy. The hysteria on the internet, fe