Over 142,000 Persons Living with HIV do not know their status – Ghana Aids Commission

More than 142,000 Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV) in Ghana do not know their status because they have not tested, says the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC).

Again, the Commission maintained that more than 46,000 Ghanaians who knew their status were not on live saving treatment (ARVs).

Mr Kyeremeh Atuahene, Director General of the GAC made this known during a virtual media briefing and National Dissemination of 2019 HIV Estimates and Projections Meeting.

He further revealed that the nearly 190,000 PLHIV who were not on Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) sustained the high level of annual new infections.

Mr Atuahene noted that young people aged from 15-24 years accounted for 28 per cent of the total number of new infections where, as adolescent girls and young women for one in five of all infections.

He pointed out that the annual average of infections have remained more than 20,000 although new infections had reduced by about five per cent between 2015 and 2019.

This trend if allowed to continue, 200,000 more newly infected Ghanaians would be added to the HIV population over the next 10 years, said the Director General of the GAC.

Mr Atuahene noted that it was the determination of the Commission to end the epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

The National and Sub-National HIV Estimates and Projections are done yearly to generate HIV data on prevalence, and PLHIV population among others for purposes of planning, management of national programmes and global reporting.

The 2019 Report had been produced by the National Estimates Team with Technical Support from the UNAIDS Reference Group.