346,120 Living With HIV In Ghana Very Disturbing
The Director General (DG) of GAC, Mr. Kyeremeh Atuahene has disclose to news men that HIV population in the country as at the end of 2020 stands at 346,120 and the prevalence rate is 1.68%.
Mr. Atuahene stated that the objective of prevention is to reduce new HIV infections by 85% in general population, key populations, adolescent girls and young women and eliminate mother-to-child transmission.
Early infant diagnosis figures since 2012.
He gave early infant diagnosis (EID) figures as 2016 -12%, 2017 – 8%, 2018 -7%, 2019 – 8% and 2020 – 7.2%.
ART coverage among pregnant women since 2016. ART coverage among pregnant women to ensure the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) includes 2016 – 50%, 2017- 67%, 2018 – 83%, 2019 -87% but dropped to 80.2% last year.
Impact of COVID-19 restrictions:
Mr. Atuahene attributed the drop to COVID-19 restrictions which affected the administration of ART to pregnant women.
Persons on ART since 2016
The figures for persons living with HIV who have been on ART treatment in the past six years are 2016 -100,665, 2017-125,667, 2018 – 113,171, 2019 -153,901 and 2020 – 208,811.
The national HIV testing coverage in the past six years has been 2016 – 40%, 2017 – 48%, 2018 – 64%, 2019 – 1575 and 2020 -128%.
SOURCE Frank Owusu Obimpeh
