Director General of Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr. Kyeremeh Atuahene has revealed that Ghana has recorded a notable reduction of 27% in new HIV/AIDS infections from 2021 to 2022.
According to him, the encouraging trend reflects the collective efforts of health authorities, personnel and communities in combatting the spread of the virus in the country.
He mentioned that the recent decrease indicates a decline in the number of new HIV/AIDS cases, marking a positive shift in the country’s battle against the epidemic, “The prevalence went to a peak in 2003 about 1.6% that is, adult prevalence went to 2.6%. It has decreased to almost 1.6% meaning we have removed almost 1% point from it and if you are able to fight it to that point, which means you have performed.”
However, despite the progress, the Director General stated during an exclusive interview with Kwadwo Sefah-Danquah on the Happy Morning Show that there is still work to be done, ”Although the death cases a has reduced if Ghanaians avail themselves and bear with us and do what we have asked them to do, the new infection would reduce and we would not see the AIDS deaths at all because there are drugs that prevent people from contracting the disease and die and there are also drugs that help to reduce the transmission to others.”
His comment comes on the back of the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS in the country. Eastern region has the highest rate of HIV at 2.3%, following closely are the Greater Accra Region and Western Region, both with the rates of 2.1% and 2.2% respectively.
He added that one major problem the Commission had to face was to witness more decrease than what transpired this year, “because it is our objective that every year if we don’t perform at all, new infections should decrease by 17%, and AIDS death by 17% but in 2021 it decreased by only 8% instead of the 17%, which means there was a reduction of 9% so we couldn’t achieve our target.”
