You cannot get HIV from sharing a classroom. Here is what the research says.

One of the most persistent myths circulating in Nigerian universities is that you can contract HIV through everyday contact with someone who is HIV positive. Sharing a lecture hall, a hostel bathroom, or a plate of food does not put you at risk. Not even close. And yet this myth continues to shape how students treat their peers.

How HIV is actually transmitted

HIV is transmitted through specific bodily fluids: blood, semen, vaginal and rectal fluids, breast milk, and pre-seminal fluid. It is not transmitted through saliva, tears, sweat, air, water, insect bites, or skin contact. You cannot get HIV from a handshake, a hug, sharing food, or sitting beside someone in a class.

The 2018 study at Ebonyi State University, the only campus-specific HIV data available from Nigerian universities, found a prevalence rate of just 0.22% among newly admitted students. If casual contact transmitted HIV, we would see a very different picture on campuses where students share everything from hostels to lecture notes.

Where the myth comes from

HIV stigma in Nigeria has deep roots in early public health messaging from the 1980s and 1990s, when the science of transmission was not fully understood. Much of that fear stuck even as the science moved forward. A 2017 review of HIV stigma in Nigeria found that misconceptions about transmission are one of the primary drivers of discriminatory behaviour toward people living with HIV.

On Nigerian campuses specifically, these myths spread through informal peer conversations, religious communities, and social media content that has never been fact-checked. By the time a student arrives at university, they may have been carrying incorrect beliefs for years.

What the knowledge-attitude paradox tells us

Research consistently shows what we call a knowledge-attitude paradox: students can score high on HIV knowledge tests and still hold deeply stigmatising attitudes toward their HIV positive peers. A 2024 study of university students found that 96.85% demonstrated high AIDS knowledge, yet only 55.52% had positive attitudes toward people living with HIV. Knowing the facts is not enough to change behaviour. That is why LUMA exists.

If someone at your university is living with HIV, sharing a classroom with them carries no risk whatsoever. What does carry risk is the stigma that makes them feel unsafe, unseen, and unsupported in that classroom. That is the real problem LUMA is here to address.

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