By Alex Ababio
It is estimated that more than hundred thousand people are living with HIV in Ghana yet do not know their status .
However ,Ghana recorded a decrease in new infection and related death cases of AIDS by 26% and 38 percent respectively somewhere in the range of 2017 and 2021.
This, as indicated by the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), Dr Kyeremeh Atuahene, was because of the resources, strategies, expertise and commitment contributed towards the battle against the disease over the course of the last years.
Dr Atuahene made this statement at the launch of the fifth edition of the National HIV and AIDS Research Conference (NHARCON) in Accra which would come on in April one year from now.
The conference, which is a flagship program of GAC, and organised every four years is aimed toward giving a platform to share ideas on the side of the execution of the ongoing National Strategic Plan 2021 to 2025.
It likewise formed part of GAC commitment to spread and share HIV and AIDS vital data to its partners and accomplices in the implementation of the National Response .
The Director General additionally declared that regardless of the decrease recorded, GAC confronted difficulties as over 100,000 people in the nation lived with HIV without knowing their status.
This, he said, had a potential of preventing the GAC’s of accomplishing its objective of 95% status knowledge, 95% in the administration of anti- retroviral drugs and 95 percent in viral concealment.
He noticed that misinterpretation about the infection represented the low knowledge on status among people in the nation and in this way urged people to go for testing as it was free.
The Programs Director for the National Aids Control Program, Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo reiterated the need for key partners in the health sector to utilize information and data for policy formation and intervention.
“We really want to do all that could be within reach to utilize data and information. It is a result of the absence of it that when you come out for certain information, individuals are responding,” he said.
Dr Addo further stated that “regardless of the reality we can distinguish the proposal and I danger in certain areas, we have not put resources into resources in those areas.”
The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr Kwaku Afriyie launching the conference commended the GAC and other health experts for their battle against the disease.
Dr Afriyie stated that the outbreak of Coronavirus had over shadowed the seething impact brought about by HIV and AIDS and other disease .
The Minister, in this regard , called for help from the general public as the nation kept on targeting annihilating the disease by 2030.
Some key personalities at the launching included delegates from government and development partners like the World health organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Others major organizations included the national Tuberculosis Program, United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.