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Report by Nana POKU
Figures released at a day’s workshop in Accra presuppose that the incidence of HIV infections is on the increase and the country needs to sit up to reduce the infections. Speakers at the workshop unanimously called for RETHINKING and RESITUATING; to say the country must as a matter of urgency devise new strategies, methods, schemes, and standards to stop its escalation in the country.
One of the presenters, Rev Ken Danso from the National Aids Control Program said Ghana recorded its first case of HIV in 1986. Since that time the disease has been with us in spite of all attempts to tame it.
Rev Dansoh emphasized that Aids does not have any cure so citizens must do their best to avoid its infection. He disclosed that some unsuspected men and women are walking around with no knowledge of their infection of the disease.
According to him about 345,000 Ghanaians are infected with the disease and 71% of the figure is diagnosed and are on drugs, but 29% have not been diagnosed and/or put on any medication.
Such people are walking around and supposedly infecting people unknowingly.
He also indicated that so far, 262,042 patients are on ART treatment. Rev Dansoh showed participants that 2 out of every Ghanaian is a potential HIV patient; 20 out of every 1000 Ghanaians are HIV positive in that order.
In that case, records show that children constitutes 5%, females 75% and males 20 % in that order of those on ART drugs.
The most vulnerable groups are Males to Males sex partners. 18% in every 100 males sampled; Female Sex Workers 5% out of every 100 females sampled; 14% of 100 TB patients test positive; 2% out of every 100 children test positive; while 2% out of 100 pregnant women may test positive; 14 % out of 100 TB patients may test HIV positive. He told the gathering that HIV should be treated as any other disease like Covid 19, TB, Malaria, Heptites B because it has come to stay with us, so it should be de-stigmatized because everybody is at risk. According to him, one can get HIV through other avenues and not necessarily the perceived means of sexual indiscipline; by way of knife or blade cut, contaminated needles, and injuries.
Some people get it through birth, he stated. He said that there has been a steady decline in HIV incidence from 1986 of 6.4 % to the current 2.6 % but every step should be developed to neutralize its incidence completely in Ghana and his organization like others is rethinking more potent and sustainable ways of combating it.
He, therefore, called for the focus of attention on the vulnerable groups they term KEY POPULATIONS like MSM, FSW, Pregnant Women, Adolescent Youth, and Drug Users where the disease is very prevalent in their research.
He called for random tests or self-tests and reported cases to the nearest hospital for medication as soon as possible. Again he advised patients to follow the instructions of the drug and follow them rigidly to suppress the viral infections because the moment a patient stops the regular medication, he or she will relapse into death.
He advocated for what he called 95-95-95 by 2030 as against 90- -90-90 in 2020; 95% detection or test, 95 % medication, and 95% viral suppression to stop a catastrophe. The other speakers spoke of evolving new methods of suppressing the incidence and spreading it through collaboration, networking, and complimenting each other NGOs in the fight against the scourge in Ghana. Sensitization, education, awareness creation, advocacy, and the need for financial and logistical support to combat the dangerous disease are key in that direction.
They called for community, institutional, political, traditional, and religious engagements and discussion to defeat the disease in totality.
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