Men make a Difference Culture, HIV/AIDS and Men’s Risks And responsibilities.

HIV/AIDS remains one of the most severe emerging diseases of the 20th century. This infection, like other sexually transmitted infections, is driven by individual behaviors. These behaviors may in turn be driven by poverty, by unequal relationships between men and women or by cultural and religious norms that leave people with little control over their exposure to the AIDS virus (UNAIDS 1999). Nigeria, with a current HIV rate of 5.4 % is comparatively low, however with a population of over 100 million, there are well over 5 million infected Nigerians (Federal Ministry of Health,1999). Cultural situations that create the vulnerability to HIV infections have not been adequately studied and understanding of these are important for proper control of the disease especially in Africa. In this regard, men, have not received enough attention, particularly married men who are the major reproductive health decision makers. There is adequate evidence to show also that a large proportion of women are infected by their male partners (Caldwell et al,1993). Following The 21st special session of the UN General Assembly (ICPD+5) held in 1999 which drew attention to the role of gender equality and equity as a key determinant of success in the struggle against AIDS, it i