Programmes Manager of the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr. Stephen Ayisi Addo, has revealed that at least 34,000 positive new cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) were identified between the first and third quarters of this year.
Dr. Ayisi Addo stated that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) identified these through testing and screening activities this year, adding that “already this year, we have started a series of activities, and we are going to build on that.”
At the launch of this year’s World AIDS Day in Accra on Friday, the NACP Programme Manager shared these details during a candlelight procession honoring those who had lost their lives to the virus.
He said, “Between January and the third quarter alone, the number of people we identified as positives through our testing activities, where we screened about 1.3 million people, was 34, 000.”
The global theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is ‘Take the right path,’ while the national theme is ‘Ending AIDS Together: Stepping up prevention efforts.’
He said that the number of positive new cases discovered despite the GHS’s efforts to raise awareness about the disease was concerning and necessitated doubling efforts to eradicate AIDS by 2030.
He also lamented the unwillingness of virus-infected individuals to seek treatment, urging them to do so in order to slow the virus’s spread.
Furthermore, Dr. Ayisi Addo urged infected persons who were on treatment anonymously to avail themselves and freely receive their stock of HIV commodities such as antiretroviral medication and condoms.
He called on all stakeholders, including civil society organizations, religious bodies, and community activists, to help in the creation of awareness about HIV and AIDS in the country.
The Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Dr. Kyeremeh Atuahene, said the GAC would intensify its awareness-raising efforts on HIV in order to increase its visibility in the eyes of the public, as it remained a public health issue.
Dr. Atuahene noted that for the country to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, individuals had to adopt protective behaviors such as abstinence from sex and the use of condoms.
In addition, the GAC Director General announced a number of district, regional, and national events, including a grand durbar in Accra on December 2, 2024, to mark this year’s World AIDS Day.
In attendance at the launch were representatives from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIIDS (UNAIDS), the Ghana Network of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+ GHANA), the Ghana HIV/AIDS Network (GHANET), and civil society organizations.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com| Priscilla Harrison
