HIV/AIDS still real even though the fear of death is reduced – Dr Ayisi Addo

"HIV/AIDS is still real even though the fear of death it used to carry has gone because of the treatment, the public needed to take its prevention seriously as more new infections were being recorded daily."

Dr Stephen Ayisi-Addo, Programme Manager of the National AIDS/STI Control Programme has revealed and called on institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to upscale how they handle issues of stigma against persons living with HIV/AIDS.

He said the issue of stigmatization is a major problem hindering the crusade against HIV, “if the public would show love to people with HIV, the tendency to hide their status and spread the virus to unsuspecting people would be reduced”.

He said this at the 13th edition of the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office’s Stakeholders’ Engagement when he addressed the topic; “Ghana’s HIV Strategies in line with the Global Health Strategy for HIV, STI and Viral-Hepatitis,” which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

The monthly engagement also serves as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters towards national development in general and the growth and promotion of the Tema GNA as the industrial news hub.

The engagement also saw Ms Fatimata Mahami, Tema Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) presenting on the topic; “The fight against corruption in Ghana, a mirage or reality; the Perspective of CHRAJ”.

Dr Ayisi-Addo also gave the assurance that Ghana would be able to achieve the 95-95-95 HIV goal by the scheduled year 2025.

The 95-95-95 target was launched globally by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to diagnose 95 per cent of all HIV positive persons, put at least 95 per cent of those diagnosed on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and also achieve viral suppression for 95 per cent of those on treatment by 2025.

Dr Ayisi-Addo said Ghana could achieve the target if all stakeholders got involved and played their respective roles in the prevention of new cases, case finding, and referral of persons living with HIV to the respective facilities for treatment, and discouraging stigmatization.

He said data collected for the year 2020 showed that currently Ghana was at 88-79-79 of the 90-90-90 target for 2023 but from here we shall move to achieve the 2025 target stressing that achieving it does not only depend on the HIV Control Programme or the Ghana AIDS Commission but rather required the efforts of everyone.

He said looking at the data, Ghanaians must know that between the figure and the target represented people who needed to test for their status to be known therefore calling on the public to encourage themselves and others to take volunteering counselling and testing to know their status.

He said achieving the second and third targets of respectively putting 95 per cent of HIV positive people on ART, and achieving 95 per cent viral suppression in those on medication would be problematic if the first target could not be achieved because people were not testing for the positive cases to be picked up.

To achieve Ghana’s HIV and Aids Strategic Plan 2021-2025, Dr Ayisi-Addo said four strategic objectives have been adopted to empower the population to prevent new infections, as well as ensure the availability of and accessibility to prevention, treatment, care and support services.

The others are to mitigate the social and economic effect of HIV on persons infected and affected by HIV and to ensure the availability of adequate funding to execute the policy strategies.

Dr Ayisi-Addo said new initiatives to achieve the target as introduced by his outfit included the provision of combination prevention and treatment to Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW).

He said provision of timely Pre-Exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis to key populations and persons exposed to HIV, implementation of HIV self-testing, and effective integration of HIV services to ensure universal health coverage.

Mr Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager has entreated journalists to visit various health centres for information to highlight the several social issues affecting mankind.

He said, "go to our hospitals, there are lots of information at the clinics, polyclinics, Hospitals, the Regional and District health directors, Ghanaians need education on healthy lifestyle from professionals.

"If you enter the clinics and hospitals and focus on HIV coverage alone the number of stories that will emanate would cover the pages and news bulletins daily, journalists must develop an interest in health news, you can develop a profession in medical journalism and it's very big because there are a lot of things to cover," Mr Ameyibor stated.