More than 24,000 people living with HIV in Central Region
An estimated 24,046 people are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), including 1,240 new infections recorded in the Central Region in 2022, the Ghana AIDS Commission has reported.
The Commission’s 2022 report indicates that 16,021 of the affected population, representing 71.63 per cent are women, while adults, 15 years and above had cases of 22,364 representing 93 per cent.
The Gomoa East District recorded the highest incidence with 2,590 cases while Ekumfi recorded the lowest with 285, the report further shows.
The figures position the Central Region as the fourth region with the highest population of persons living with HIV, following the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Eastern Regions.
The region, however, is the second with the least Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) coverage of 53.9 per cent, only second to the Savannah Region which has 53.1 per cent.
This means that more than 46 per cent of the persons living with virus in the Central Region are not undergoing the ART treatment, posing significant risks to themselves and the larger population.
Mr William Kwaku Yeboah, the Central Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission, attributed the unwillingness of people to seek treatment to continuous stigma and discrimination even though the medication was free.
“They are tagged as immoral people. In fact, the moment you get HIV, your own children can run away from you and so, people are not willing to test in the first place to know their status.
“Which means, they will keep on infecting more people,” he said.
He stated that it was possible to end AIDS if HIV-positive persons took their medications religiously to make the virus “undetectable” and “untransmittable”.
Mr Yeboah debunked the notion that all contraceptives could protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
“Any contraceptive you take besides condom cannot protect you against HIV. Condom is the only contraceptive that can protect you from HIV and other STIs. The rest will only prevent pregnancy.
He said the fact that the region kept recording new cases meant people were not using condoms because the sexual transmission formed about 80 per cent of the infections, he said.
While advising against having multiple sexual partners, he said it was important to “protect yourselves at all times and never lose your guard because you do not know the status of the other party.”
Mr Yeboah appealed to the public to make conscious efforts at all levels towards eliminating the virus, citing the burden on individuals, families, communities, and the State.
“If HIV were not there the monies, we have spent on it for the past 37 years could have been channelled into other areas of development,” he added.
Source: GNA