With her golden dress shimmering in the sun and ornate henna tattoos covering her hands, Hauwa Idris is the picture of a radiant Nigerian bride. But her betrothal has hardly been typical: Both bride and groom are infected with the deadly AIDS virus and have been encouraged to wed by an unusual government program. Bauchi State, in Nigeria's heavily Muslim north, has recently begun playing Cupid with its HIV sufferers, encouraging them to marry by offering counseling and cash toward their big day. The goal: to halt the spread of HIV in the non-infected population. “We live in a polygamous society where divorce is common and contraceptive use is low,” says Yakubu Usman Abubakar, an official working with the Bauchi Action Committee on AIDS, which runs the program. “If we can stop those who have the disease spreading it to those who don't have the disease, then obviously it will come under control.” The plan had seen 93 “positive” couples married since its inception about two years ago. Bauchi is the only one of Nigeria's 36 states known to have such a program. In a society where HIV sufferers are stigmatized, these “positive marriages” provide more than just companionship. Around 4 million of Nigeria's 140 million people are living with HIV -- the second largest HIV population in the world, according to Britain's foreign development agency.
