[ 2016-12-13 ]

AIDS kills 669 in Upper East Region
At least 669 persons have died from HIV/AIDS with
698 new infections recorded in the Upper East
Region, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has
announced.

A report compiled in 2015 and cited this month by
the Upper East Regional Health Directorate has
also revealed that 6,397 people are living with
the disease with 3,886 persons- only about a half
of the infected numbers- said to be on
antiretroviral therapy.

The disturbing developments come amid claims by
the directorate that the HIV prevalence rate has
dropped in the region with antiretroviral
treatment clinics established in all thirteen
municipalities and districts.

“We are the only region in Ghana that has been
able to attain hundred percent district
antiretroviral treatment clinic establishment
coverage by increasing the number of
antiretroviral clinics from 9 to 16 since 2014.
Every district now can provide HIV care, treatment
and support without referring to any other
district as it used to be few years ago,” the
regional director of health, Dr. Kofi Issah,
stated at the regional commemoration of the World
AIDS Day at Navrongo, a town in the western part
of the region.

“Our region has continued to register a
consistent decline in HIV prevalence rate from
2.1% in 2012 to 1.5% in 2015. The proportion of
HIV-positive pregnant women put on antiretroviral
treatment increased from 35.1% in 2013 to 94.9% in
2015. There has been reduction in HIV infection
vertical transmission among babies from 7.3% in
2012 to 5.7% in 2015,” he added.

Navrongo rocked by HIV upsurge

Navrongo, capital of the Kassena-Nankana
Municipality, has been reported as showing what
the regional health directorate describes as a
“consistent increase” in HIV prevalence rate
since 2013.

The worrying trend prompted authorities to hold
this year’s observance of the World AIDS Day in
that busy capital with several market women and
students from basic and senior high schools
involved in a road march that preceded a durbar at
the COS Park.

“Despite the positive consistent reduction in
HIV prevalence our region has recorded over the
past three years, there is a cause to worry as the
situation is on the reverse in Navrongo where
records show a consistent increase in prevalence
rate in the past three years- 1.2% in 2013, 1.6%
in 2014 and 1.8% in 2015,” Dr. Issah disclosed
at the grassless park.

For a capital scourged by the draining virus on a
troubling scale and playing a regional host for
the World AIDS Day celebration, the organisers of
the event did not lose their footing about what to
do on that rare occasion. The Ghana AIDS
Commission pitched tents on the verge of the
durbar ground with a solemn call for voluntary HIV
testing, breast cancer screening and blood
pressure measurement. And scores, in rapid but
cautious response, took turns in a queue to be
examined.

Babies at risk of HIV as region mourns shortage of
midwives

he regional health directorate also painted the
picture of a region where a chronic shortage of
midwives, whose role in preventing the
transmission of the virus from mothers to babies
has been crucial, could put newborns at the risk
of sharing the viral loads their infected mothers
carry.

“The region is faced with limited midwives who
play [a] pivotal role in the comprehensive
prevention from mother to child transmission and
general HIV testing intervention services. This
situation has the tendency to compromise the
delivery of quality services since the limited
midwives are overwhelmed with work as they run
both static and outreach services. Due to
dwindling financial support, our quest to build
the staff capacity to offer the service is
affected,” Dr. Issah pointed out.

He added: “The number of midwives and community
health nurses trained on comprehensive HIV testing
services is far below the target of at least 2 per
facility. Stigma and discrimination exhibited
towards people living with HIV from the society,
poor family support for affected persons and lack
of NGOs and philanthropists in the region to
support in the HIV fight are also a cause for
worry. Coupled with this is transportation
constraint. Motorbikes and cars to facilitate
outreach services and antiretroviral delivery to
lower-level facilities are also not readily
available- which has become a major bottleneck in
all service delivery facilities.”

Sanctions for mockers of people living with AIDS

It was also announced at the durbar that those who
inflicted any form of stigma or discrimination on
people living with HIV/AIDS would not go
unpunished by the law from the beginning of 2017.

The HIV-related sanctions, according to the Upper
East Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana
AIDS Commission, Dr. Gifty Apiung Aninanya, are
backed by a new Act.

“We are entering the year 2017 with a new Act
for the Ghana AIDS Commission. Some of the
striking aspects of the new Ghana AIDS Commission
Act are the provision it makes for sanctions
against people who stigmatise and discriminate
against persons who live with HIV, the need to
address the human rights needs of people living
with HIV and other vulnerable populations.

“The Act also makes room for a less [manageable]
Commission- which in my view will ensure
efficiency and cost-effective administration of
the Commission. It is my fervent hope that we all
will support the implementation of the new Act
when it comes into force,” Dr. Aninanya said.

Source - Starrfm

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