[pronut-hiv] Ghana: HIV/AIDS Reports Show Country Is Doing Well

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Ghana: HIV/AIDS Reports Show Country Is Doing Well

"Lack of adherence and nutritional support for ARV is one of the
challenges facing the HIV/AIDS programme in Ghana."

Accra Mail (Accra)
May 17, 2006
Isaac Essel


A national consultation meeting has been held in Accra on the
"Universal Access", a programme aimed at scaling-up HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support in the country.

Giving an overview about the programme, Dr Kwei Addo of the National
AIDS Control Programme said on prevention, Ghana's target for the
Universal Access would see a reduction in the HIV prevalence among
people aged 15 - 49 drop from 2.7% in 2005 to 1.9% in 2010. He said the
percentage of HIV-infected infants born to HIV infected mothers is
expected to drop from 30% in 2004 to 15% in 2010. In a very remarkable
jump, in 2005 the number of women, men and children with advanced HIV
infection who received antiretroviral combination therapy was 3.2% but
this is expected to rise to 66% in 2010. The number of centres providing
ARV services would also shoot from the present 5 to 138 centres in
2010.

Dr. Addo said for care and support, the ratio of current school
attendance among orphans to that among non-orphans, aged 10-14 with a
baseline of 0.79 in 2003 would increase to 0.95 in 2010.

Professor Sakyi A. Amoah, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission
(GAC) told ADM that Ghana would not set new targets under Universal
Access, but rather would re-enforce the existing programme.

He said the Commission has a comprehensive programme within the
Ministry of Education for the Ghana Education Service and is also
looking for support from UNICEF for one of its programmes, "M-Sharp" for
an HIV/AIDS direct programme throughout the country that would target
teachers, pupils and even the community so that the GAC's activities
would re-enforce behavioral change.

He said: "Our behavioral change communication is being looked at. We
are developing a new strategy that would also help us to give messages
consistent with specific age groups, so that we don't talk about general
messages." He said that would be more focused and would have greater
impact.

Prof .Amoh said in order to achieve the targets set under the Universal
Access, the nation needs to double up its efforts against HIV/AIDS by
identifying key obstacles that are blocking universal access to
prevention, care and support services for HIV/AIDS.

He mentioned inequality in anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) coverage,
procurement problems, overburdened health workers, lack of adherence and
nutritional support for ARV as some of the challenges facing the
HIV/AIDS programme in Ghana.

He said even though Ghana appears to be doing well in the 2005 sentinel
survey, "we are not being complacent". Prof. Amoah stressed the need for
Ghana to develop nationally agreed targets that will enable it provide a
comprehensive AIDS programme.

Dr. Joaquim Saweka, the Representative of WHO commended Ghana for the
Phase II of the National Strategic Framework 2006-2010 (NSF II). He
said: "It is gratifying to note that the NSF II annual programmes of
work until 2010 will be reflecting the set Universal Access targets for
Ghana."

He said the commitment to scaling-up towards Universal Access in Ghana
is not a target for itself, but rather emphasizes the urgency, quality
and equity the country attaches to it. It also involves how the
development of prevention, treatment, care and support are relevant to
the nation.

Dr Joaquim advised: "We must not forget that monitoring of activities
towards scaling-up for the Universal Access is vital for knowing where
we are and also to evaluate successes, lessons learnt and best
practices. Data collected must be accurate and disaggregated to cover
all parameters to provide us with relevant information for action".

The Universal Access is a facilitating inclusive country-driven
process. It includes consultations with relevant stakeholders within
existing national AIDS strategies, for scaling-up HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support with the aim of coming as close as possible
to the goal of universal access to treatment by 2010 for all those who
need it.