Durbar held in Sunyani to mark World AIDS Day
Ghana will now focus resources on children and ensure that they get access to services that will help prevent and manage HIV in the nation’s bid to attain a generation free of infection.
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The Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, who made this known, said the country was recognised for its achievements in reducing new infections among children, adding that through collaborative efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, 81 per cent of pregnant women, targeted over the period 2011 to 2015, were reached with anti-retroviral medicines to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies.
Mr Debrah was addressing a durbar of the chiefs and people of Sunyani to commemorate the 2015 World AIDS Day in Sunyani Tuesday.
This year’s celebration has the global theme: “Getting to zero: End AIDS by 2030”.
Ghana is celebrating the day on the theme: “Fast track: Meeting the health needs of children towards an HIV-free generation”.
Mr Debrah said through collective effort, the country achieved a decline in HIV prevalence from 3.6 per cent in 2003 to 1.47 per cent in 2014.
He said in spite of the success chalked up, the coverage translated into only 47 per cent of all estimated pregnancies nationwide, adding that “over the next five years, we need to ensure that a lot more pregnant women are reached and know their HIV status”.
He said according to UNAIDS, HIV transmission rate among exposed babies at six weeks had declined steadily from an estimated 15 per cent to four per cent since 2009, adding that transmission rate was 18 per cent after the period of breast feeding.
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That, he said, meant that the country was close to achieving elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV at birth.
Unfortunately, he added, those gains were being reversed during the breast feeding period when the babies were getting infected because their mothers were not on effective treatment.
Strategic plan
Mr Debrah also announced that the country was developing a new five-year national strategic plan (2016-2020) to combat the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
The Chairman of the Council of State, Mrs Cecilia Johnson, who also spoke at the durbar, said over the last two years, the Ghana AIDS Commission had embarked on a concerted resource mobilisation drive from the private and quasi-government sector and that these efforts were already yielding good results.
She also talked about the role played by the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, since her appointment as UNAIDS Ambassador in 2013 to help eliminate new HIV infections among children and keep their mothers alive.
In a related development, Mrs Mahama has renewed her commitment to support efforts towards the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission and care for people living with HIV.
In a statement to commemorate World AIDS Day, she encouraged all to use the day as a starting point for sustained solidarity with people living with HIV.