Ghana’s HIV Case Hits 346, 120;5,211People Between 15-24 Test Positive
346,120 Ghanaians have tested positive to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) with news infection of 18, 928 in 2020.
What is more worrying about these figures is that out of the 18, 928 victims, 5, 211 are people within the 15-24 age bracket representing 28% of all the new infections in 2020
Adults above 25 years constituted 9, 796 representing 53% while children from 0-14, thus mother to child transmission constituted 2,961 representing 19%.
Ghana’s effort to end the HIV and AIDS scourge by 2030 is therefore under serious threat due to the high new infections among young people between the ages of 15 and 24.
Of the young people between the ages of 15 and 24, 4,325 representing 83% are females, while 886 representing 17% are males.
At a media engagement session on the status of Ghana’s HIV epidemic, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Kyereme Atuahene said the country’s prevalence rate is 1.68%.
According to Mr. Atuahene, the vast disparity between the infection rate of females (83%) and males (17%) is due to the susceptibility of women in contracting the virus due to the nature of their reproductive system.
According to him, the 15 to 24-year-olds are getting infected by having sex with old men and that, the infections among young people pose a big threat to the fight against the HIV-AIDS scourge.
He told Journalists that while some of the older men and women take advantage of the vulnerabilities of some of the young people, many of the young people voluntarily have sex with older men and women for financial gains.
Records from the GAC reveal that 12, 758 have died from HIV related diseases. This is as a result of some infected persons not reporting and taking the prescribed Antiretroviral drugs.
With the fast track target of 95-95-95 susch statistics is worrying for the country and calls for a conscious effort from the population especially the youth to gain knowledge on safe sex practices.
Government, through the GAC, seeks to achieve accelerate progress to end HIV/AIDS by 2030 by an objective to reduce new infections by 85% in the general population, adolescents, key population, young men and women and to eliminate child to mother infections.
Concluding, Mr. Atuahene stated emphatically that the GAC neither endorses LGBTQ+ nor is against the LGBTQ+ Bill in parliament.
He called for a collaborative efforts to end the new infections.
