Exploring the cultural context of HIV/AIDS pandemic in a Nigerian community: Implication for culture specific prevention programmes

The new face of Human Immune Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has earned its recognition as a social problem due to the associated devastating social and cultural consequences on the individual and the society at large. As such, the pandemic needs to be given adequate social and cultural explication and exploration for the purpose of designing effective prevention programmes. The need to know the extent of the interrelationship between cultural practices/ beliefs and HIV/AIDS for an effective programme design led to this rapid assessment in a culturally diverse state in Nigeria, which this paper presents.