Citizens can now request free HIV self-testing kits online for delivery to their homes as part of efforts by the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) to reduce stigma, discrimination and other barriers preventing people from knowing their HIV status.
The initiative, introduced by the Ghana HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET), provides two test kits per request to encourage couples to test together and make informed decisions about their health. However, users are required to pay for delivery charges.
The online platform, www.selftestghana.online, which went live on October 1,2026, also provides information about HIV, and lists about 700 health facilities across the country where people can access HIV-related services.
This was made known at the launch of this year’s World AIDS Day celebration in Accra on Tuesday on the global theme: “Ending AIDS starts with access,” with the sub-theme: “Forty years of steady progress, stepping up prevention to end AIDS.”
Know your status
The Director-General of GAC, Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, urged people to take advantage of the initiative to know their HIV status.
“Testing is the first entry point to series of measures of how we can prevent HIV. So we are making self-testing readily available, this time it should be possible that through your phone you can get a self test to be delivered to your house where you can do your testing," he said.
At the close of 2025, an estimated number of 337,435 people were living with HIV in the country, while about 13,957 new infections were recorded, of which young people aged between 15 and 24 accounted for about 30 per cent.
The Director-General, however,said there had been a reduction in prevalence from 4.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent.
He said about 70 per cent of people living with HIV knew their status, 81 per cent of those diagnosed were receiving treatment, while 92 per cent of those on treatment had achieved viral suppression.
Dr Akanbong also reported a decline in new infections and HIV-related deaths, with annual deaths falling from about 24,000 to fewer than 12,000.
He appealed to government agencies, the private sector, ministries, departments, agencies and individuals to contribute to the National HIV and AIDS Fund to sustain prevention and treatment programmes.
Initiatives
The Board Chairman of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Kakra Essamuah, said the commission was working to move prevention programmes from centralised facilities to community-level interventions.
The Programme Manager of NACP, Dr Emmanuel Teviu, said access to HIV services must be treated as a basic requirement rather than a privilege if the country was to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
The Programme Coordinator of GHANET, Gladys Akwetey, also encouraged people to get tested, saying, self-testing kits came with instructions to guide users through the process and the interpretation of their results.
The UNAIDS Representative, Haeun Lee, and the Country Manager of AIDS Healthcare Foundation Ghana, Dr Efua E. Houphouet, called for increased investment in HIV prevention, stronger community leadership and sustained funding to ensure uninterrupted access to treatment and care.
In a speech read on his behalf, the UNFPA Country Representative, Dr Wilfred Ochan, urged stakeholders to prioritise young people in HIV prevention programmes.
The acting Executive Director of the National Population Council, Angelina Osei Kodua Nyanor, also encouraged the public to take advantage of available testing services.
