Ghana is among 22 countries that have reduced Mother-To-Child (MTC) transmission of HIV by 50 per cent, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Global Report for 2013.
In addition, adult HIV prevalence in the country has also declined consistently from 3.6 per cent in 2003 to 1.3 per cent in 2013 while 2011 HIV/AIDS estimates show that, Ghana is also the only country in West Africa to have attained the “tipping point,” a state where the number of people starting HIV treatment exceeded the number of people acquiring HIV infection.
The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Dr Angela El-Adas, made these known at the commemoration of this year’s World AIDS Day in Accra, yesterday.
Dr El-Adas noted that Ghana’s efforts at managing the HIV epidemic had yielded international recognition for the positive results achieved, over the years.
However, she said, in spite of the global recognition for rapid progress, some 25 percent of pregnant women in the country still did not have access to prevention services.
She, therefore, called on all communities and families, health workers and facilities, and traditional and religious leaders to help raise money to procure the tools for the testing and treatment, especially, of pregnant women.
Dr El-Adas said the GAC, with support from its partners, would continue to implement treatment programmes nationwide in order to save lives and deliver anti-retroviral drugs to HIV patients.
In an address delivered on his behalf, the Vice President, His Excellency Paa Kwesi Bekoe Ammissah-Arthur, urged stakeholders to continue working at closing the gap between patients who need treatment for HIV and AIDS and those who are currently on treatment by reaching out to the most vulnerable populace with targeted HIV prevention and care services.
Mr Ammissah-Arthur noted that as a result of the awareness campaign by GAC and its partners including the Heart-to-Heart Ambassadors, who used their personal lives and circumstances to inspire others to practice safe sex, HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discriminations are reducing.
He reiterated government’s commitment to supporting local pharmaceutical industries in the production of quality medicines.
He said government was also working at ensuring that pharmaceutical companies met the criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO) for qualification to produce anti-retroviral (AVR) medicines.
This year’s World AIDS Day was launched on the theme “Getting to Zero” while at the national level, Ghana adopted the theme “Ghana towards an HIV free generation through prevention of Mother-to-child Transmission of HIV, Safe Sex and Stigma reduction”.
The celebration aimed to promote and encourage the utilization of HIV services, such as condom use, treatment services and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The occasion also provided Ghanaians the opportunity to unite and show solidarity in the face of the HIV epidemic, support persons living with the virus and remember those who had died of AIDS.
Supporting partners present at the ceremony included the Ghana Health Service, NAP+ Ghana and the United Nations Resident Co-ordinator.
Source: ISD (G. D. Zaney)
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