Locational Analysis of HIV/AIDS Prevalence in Gombe State, Nigeria

Ever since 1981 when AIDS was first discovered the world has seen an extraordinary degree of devastation and incapacitation of humankind caused by the disease. About 77.3 million people were infected with HIV/AIDS from its inception to date and out of this number; 35.4 million people have passed away as a result of the AIDS epidemic (USAIDS, 2019). Furthermore, it was estimated that more than three million Nigerians are now living with HIV (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). HIV/AIDS incidence in Gombe State as per 2003 was 6.8% but decreased to 4.9% in the 2005 and still greater than 5% and 4.4% of the counrty rates respectively (Mela, 2009). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has targed year 2030 to end AIDS pandemic in the world. It is on this basis that this paper aimed to studied the locational analysis of HIV/AIDS in Gombe State and the specific objectives are to compare death occurences among local governent areas within the last decade, to discover the leading deseases causing death in the state, to create a HIV/AIDS density map (hot spots) and to finally to compare incidence of the HIV/AIDS among different age groups. Data were basically collected from the Specialist and all the General Hospitals within the state and analysed using Microsoft excell and presented in simple tabulations, graphs and a map using rate and percentages. The paper found that the highest number of deaths was recorded in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2011 and the local governments with highest number of death are Kaltungo, Kwani and Funakaye. It was also discovered that the leading cause of deaths in the State is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus /Arquired Immunedeficiency Syndrum (HIV/AIDS) and malaria with imfection rate as 27 persons per 100 persons and 19 perssons per 100 persons respectively. The paper also established that the highest number of persons infected with HIV/AIDS was recorded in 2009 and Gombe Local Government Area was found to be the most density HIV/AIDS ho