By Sister Margaret Anne Meyer MMM                                    USA                              10.10.2026

At that time, in the early ninety’s, HIV/AIDS, was considered an East African Disease.  The Minister of Health said that there were a few cases of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.  Few people believed it.  I started to look for it.  This was the same attitude as I found in Tanzania, other countries had it, but not us.  After a few months, a doctor in Ikom asked me to see a patient who had Kaposi Sarcoma.  She was found to be HIV positive.  Her husband was a teacher and often visited villages in Cameroon.  Ikom was close to that border.   A doctor, from the Ministry of Health, was working in Calabar and told me she would test specimens brought to her lab.  Because of what I had learned about clinically diagnosing HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, nearly all the specimens were positive for the virus.   I began doing Health Education in the schools. Sister Jacinta Roche invited me to give a workshop on HIV/AIDS IN Mafoluku.   It was well attended and the people were extremely interested in the subject.

Sr. Maura O’Donohue gave my name to speak at an AIDS Seminar in Jos and from there I was invited to many places.  In 1994, an American organization gave me money to give a workshop on AIDS.  Sr. Therese Jane Oguh was a guest speaker because she had gone abroad at the Bishops’ request to learn about HIV /AIDS.   She gave an exceptionally good presentation.  Sr. Uche Oluoha from Obudu, also helped with the organization and visits to the outlying villages.  At that time, we were seeing a steady increase in patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.  We were able to send one of our Staff Nurses for training in AIDS Counseling and he helped many patients to deal with their condition.  Sr. Doctor Leonie Mc Sweeney gave courses in behaviour change.  Another of our Staff Nurses went for this training and was able to train about eight high school students in behaviour change methods.  One of them continued to give talks at her University.  We had courses for those who wanted to attend six weekly sessions, and they received a certificate of training afterwards.  Over one hundred and fifty people were trained in HIV/AIDS counseling.  Over the years it was heartbreaking to see so many parents grieve for their young adult children dying of AIDS.  At that time, antiviral medicines were extremely expensive, and few could afford them.  Now they are much more available for the people to obtain.

We also took advantage of all the natural herbal remedies which were advertised in the journals. The branch of the frangipani flower exuded a milk like substance which took away the pain and itch of a herpes zoster rash.  Kola nut boiled in water with an onion and honey eased a hacking cough.  Boiled guava leaf soothed the itch of a fungal rash.  Iodine was added to a bland ointment to cure a fungal rash when we had no Whitfield Ointment.  It was surprising how much natural remedies could help these suffering people.  God was with us and with them, too.