On Saturday, several social media users tweeted about the use of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. They had the same exact words in their tweets, and the same attached image of an unbranded condom.

These tweets read, “So last week, the Red Cross reportedly ran HIV tests for 197 people in Abuja, Nigeria. 119 of them were positive and 60% of the positive tests were male. If you can’t control yourself, use condoms. Just stop playing games with your life.”

FIJ found five of such tweets implying every 6 in 10 Abuja residents had the virus, and that of this number, no fewer than four were males.

The tweet that garnered the most attention was one shared by Peter Atang, a medical doctor, via @FirstDoctor. Atang’s tweet reached over 1.8 million users, was liked by over 6,000, and has been retweeted by over 3,000.

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This drew the attention of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA). Responding to Atang’s claim, NACA called on the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) to confirm the veracity of the claim.

@nrcs_ng This information is passing round. Can you confirm when and where this outreach occurred with 60% prevalent rate? https://t.co/Q2IguIBGi0

— NACA Nigeria (@NACANigeria) July 29, 2023

Responding on Sunday morning, the NRCS said, “We have contacted our Abuja FCT branch and confirmed that such activity was never conducted. It’s unethical for any organisation to disclose the status of their clients/patients.” It ended its response saying, “This story is false, thank you all.”

Disinformation on HIV prevalence is rife in Nigeria with people making false claims to cause panic on several occasions.

According to a 2018 research paper published by Awoyemi Abayomi Awofala and Olusegun Emmanuel Ogundele, both from the Department of Biological Sciences, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, there are around 3.2 million people living with the virus in Nigeria.

The United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) published a report in 2019 confirming that the Nigerian government found a 2.8 percent prevalence of HIV/AIDS amongst the country’s population.

These data fall well below the 60 percent figure shared on social media, and while the spread of the virus is of global concern, disinformation about it is capable of causing panic and unsettling the populace.