Ghana joined the world on Wednesday to commemorate World AIDS Day with a call to Ghanaians to adhere strictly to precautionary measures that can help prevent them from contracting the disease.
According to the Ghana AIDS Commission, just as everyone is taking precautionary measures against the COVID-19 virus, the same attitude should be exhibited towards HIV to help curb the high number of infections recorded in the country in recent times.
Although the world has made significant progress in recent decades, important global targets for 2020 were not met.
This year’s World AIDS Day was themed ‘End Inequalities, End AIDS, End Pandemics’
According to WHO, division, inequality, and disrespect for human rights are among the shortcomings that have caused HIV to remain a worldwide pandemic.
The Central Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the Ghana AIDS Commission, Joana Mensah who spoke to ATL FM NEWS on the relevance of the theme for the day said the kind of support given to the Covid-19 should also be extended to the HIV pandemic.
“All that we are saying is that with the kind of support that was given to COVID-19 if HIV should receive the same support, I’m sure by now we will be capping the gap that is arising. We are saying that let’s treat HIV like any sickness we treat.”
In a message by President Akufo Addo on the observation of the day, he noted that the theme for this year’s World AIDS day is a key aspiration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He also expressed worry about the HIV/AIDS infection rates in Ghana adding that the goal of ending AIDS by 2030 is proving to be difficult because of structural disparities in providing solutions to it.
“2 out of 3 Ghanaians living with HIV are women, while 4 out of 5 new infections in young people aged 15 to 24 years are adolescent girls and young women. It is extremely worrying that adolescent girls and young women account for 28% of total HIV new infections in the country. For us to end this, we must eliminate inequalities and discrimination in every form of its manifestation.”
Statistics from the Ghana AIDS Commission on the 90-90-90 programme, indicated that 58% of persons living with HIV know their status, with more than 300,000 persons living with HIV.
To this end, President Akufo Addo, said a National HIV/AIDS Fund set-up to ensure adequate domestic resources to deal with HIV/AIDS response on a sustainable basis. According to him, the Fund which is being prepared by the Ghana Health Service will be put before Cabinet for consideration and subsequent approval shortly.
In her remarks to commemorate the Day, Us Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie S. Sullivan urged all and sundry to work together and tackle the disease as a global community adding that We won’t defeat this disease by ignoring or shaming people living with HIV, or driving them underground.”
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Source: Emmanuella Ama Gyamfi/ATLFMNEWS
