‘Local resource mobilisation relevant to HIV response’
The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has stressed the need for the government to intensify efforts at mobilising local resources in support of the country’s HIV and AIDS national response programme.
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A Technical Manager at the GAC, Dr Fred Nana Poku, who made the statement, said Ghana relied immensely on external funding and aid donors for HIV and AIDS response programme, stressing that the dwindling funds from external sources was likely to affect the country’s successes made over the years.
Dr Poku was speaking at a workshop organised by the GAC to update editors on the progress made in the national response to HIV and AIDS, in Accra.
He described the country’s overdependence on external funding, which contributes more than 70 per cent of the funds for the national HIV and AIDS responses, as a challenge because it was not sustainable.
Once Ghana has attained a lower middle-income country status, development partners and aid donors are supposed to discontinue or reduce their assistance to provide significant funding for the national HIV and AIDS responses.
Challenges, progress and way forward
Giving the overview of the national responses to HIV and AIDS, Dr Poku said the high HIV-related stigma and discrimination was another challenge to the campaign against HIV and AIDS.
Other challenges, he added, were the low knowledge of HIV transmission reflecting in high level of misconceptions, and high risk among people with multiple sexual partners.
Despite the challenges, the technical manager said, the HIV epidemic in Ghana had stabilised over the years with adult national prevalence of 1.37 per cent.
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HIV prevalence among pregnant women has also reduced from 3.6 per cent in 2003 to 2.1 per cent in 2012 and also declined by more than 25 per cent between 2001 and 2012 among young people.
Currently, Dr Poku noted that about 60 per cent of Persons Living with HIV (PLHIVs) were on the Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs, adding that intensive advocacy to ensure that the ARVs were produced by local industries and more PLHIVs covered by the ARVs were essential.
He added that the GAC had collaborated with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to create an online and SMS complaint platform for PLHIVs to report any form of stigma and discrimination.
NACP
An official at the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Bernard Dornor, said HIV treatment, like other diseases, was expensive, so the government should source for sustainable options for financing HIV and AIDS responses in the country, and also prevent the spread of the diseases through intensive testing and counselling services.
Director General
In her speech, the Director General of GAC, Dr Angela El-Adas, said as part of the national strategic plan 2011-2015, the commission was exploring innovative ways of funding HIV activities in the face of the dwindling donor commitments, and also to support and improve the local production of ARVs to make treatment cost-effective and to achieve universal access.
Media
While commending the media for their contributions through their reports in attaining the successes in HIV responses, Dr El-Adas encouraged them to take advantage of the training and keep abreast of HIV-related issues in ensuring quality and accurate reporting.
The President of the Ghana Journalist Association, Mr Roland Affail Monney, urged journalists to be ethical and responsible in reporting HIV and AIDS issues.