Accra, Jan. 11, –The HIV and AIDS
prevalence rate in the country is creeping up gradually, a situation the Ghana
AIDS Commission (GAC) says calls for concern.
The Commission has admitted that
the preventive education had not been done effectively these days.
“These day’s people see me and
ask, so is this HIV still in existence. And so I think we shouldn’t rest on our
oars,” Dr Mokowa Blay Adu-Gyamfi, Director General of the GAC said at a media
briefing in Accra.
Meanwhile, a GAC document made
available to the media at the end of a two-day annual strategic planning
meeting has also revealed that new HIV infections in 2016 increased to 20, 418
from about 12,000 new infections recorded in 2015.
Also a total of 15,116 people in
Ghana died of HIV and AIDS-related illness in 2016, the National Spectrum has
estimated.
Out of the total AIDS-related
deaths, 12,585, representing 83 per cent were adults while 2,531 representing
17 per cent were children under 14 years.
Again, an estimate of 293,804
people are living with HIV (PLHIV) while 261,770 (89 per cent) are adults and
32,034 (11 per cent) of the estimates being children.
Among the PLHIV, 115.244 (39 per
cent) are males and 178,560 (61 per cent are females).
The meeting, aimed to chart the
way forward in the fight of HIV epidemic in 2018, was attended by regional,
district and national officers of the Commission, and chaired by Dr Adu-Gyamfi,
who briefed the media on the outcomes of the meeting.
She announced that the strategic
objectives of GAC for the year 2018 were to ensure the availability of funding
for all relevant HIV Programme, review and formulate policies towards epidemic
control.
She said all those could be
achieved through the implementation of the provision of the GAC ACT 938,
especially the HIV and AIDS Fund and its effective management.
She also said, there would be a
revision of the current National HIV and AIDS and STI Policy to reflect the
country’s needs and current global trends.
There would also be a
continuation of the implementation of recent policies and programmes of the
national response to the epidemic, adopted by the nation, such as the 90-90-90-
Fast Track Target, the Treat All Policy, and the Differentiated Models of Care.
“All these are expected to spur
the nation on, in its efforts to achieve the National Strategic Plan 2016-2020
targets of reducing new infections and AIDS-related deaths”, Dr Adu-Gyamfi
said.
She noted that, the Commission and
it partners would step up programmes to help prevent HIV infection through
education and Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Early Infant
Diagnosis, and link up those infected to care and treatment.
The Commission would also widen
access to HIV treatment through the training of lay counsellors, reduce stigma
and discrimination against PLHIV and those affected by HIV through advocacy,
while strengthening the implementation of Task sharing guidelines with emphasis
on community level actors.
Dr Adu-Gyamfi announced that the
National HIV and AIDS Research Conference would be held in May 2018 to provide
a platform for sharing knowledge and smart practices in HIV research and
programmes as well as disseminate finding from relevant HIV and AIDS research.
She urged the media, especially,
and all partners to support the Commission to achieve its set targets for the
general good of the country.
GNA
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