Over 47,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS are receiving life- saving Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in health facilities across the country.
The figures represent about 30 per cent of people living with the disease and require ART to boost their immune system to lead a normal life, Dr Angela El-Adas, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, (GAC), has said.
She was speaking to the Times on Monday, at the sideline of a Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Workshop on HIV/AIDS that brought together 34 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and their counterparts from Africa to share ideas and analyze strategies being implemented by participating countries to combat the disease.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency, (JICA), in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Commission, organised the workshop which drew participants from Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Dr El-Adas said the Commission would soon outdoor its strategic plan for the period 2011-2015 to scale up to the ATR to ensure that people living with the disease who require the ART have at least 80 per cent accessibility by the year 2015.
She said the plan was to enable all pregnant women have 90 per cent access to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission adding that there were 700 health institutions in the country where pregnant women have access to the facilities.
Dr El-Adas explained that with the expansion of the mother to child transmission intervention, pregnant women under 14 weeks would have access to the service instead of the 28 weeks.
The Director General of the GAC said over 1,000 personnel were currently being trained by the Commission for the scaling up of the ART and other interventions being supported by the Commission in the fight against the disease.
Dr El-Adas said the HIV/AIDS prevalent rate in the country was 1.9 per cent, adding that “there is general improvement in the situation, but there is much room for improvement, there is no room for complacency.”
She said despite the reduction in the infection rate, there was still some area with between 15 and 20 per cent transmission rate, explaining that the fight was still not over.
Nobuhiro,KadioHIV/AIDS Technical Adviser to JICA, in a presentation said in 2003 about two per cent of patients in Africa in need of HIV/AIDS treatment received ART, adding that the number rose to 44 per cent in 2008 with 2.9 people estimated to be receiving the life saving medication.
He said stigmatization, distance to health facility, ignorance and negligence, fear of testing positive were some of the barriers to the fight against the disease.
The figures represent about 30 per cent of people living with the disease and require ART to boost their immune system to lead a normal life, Dr Angela El-Adas, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, (GAC), has said.
She was speaking to the Times on Monday, at the sideline of a Sub-Sahara Africa Regional Workshop on HIV/AIDS that brought together 34 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and their counterparts from Africa to share ideas and analyze strategies being implemented by participating countries to combat the disease.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency, (JICA), in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Commission, organised the workshop which drew participants from Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Dr El-Adas said the Commission would soon outdoor its strategic plan for the period 2011-2015 to scale up to the ATR to ensure that people living with the disease who require the ART have at least 80 per cent accessibility by the year 2015.
She said the plan was to enable all pregnant women have 90 per cent access to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission adding that there were 700 health institutions in the country where pregnant women have access to the facilities.
Dr El-Adas explained that with the expansion of the mother to child transmission intervention, pregnant women under 14 weeks would have access to the service instead of the 28 weeks.
The Director General of the GAC said over 1,000 personnel were currently being trained by the Commission for the scaling up of the ART and other interventions being supported by the Commission in the fight against the disease.
Dr El-Adas said the HIV/AIDS prevalent rate in the country was 1.9 per cent, adding that “there is general improvement in the situation, but there is much room for improvement, there is no room for complacency.”
She said despite the reduction in the infection rate, there was still some area with between 15 and 20 per cent transmission rate, explaining that the fight was still not over.
Nobuhiro,KadioHIV/AIDS Technical Adviser to JICA, in a presentation said in 2003 about two per cent of patients in Africa in need of HIV/AIDS treatment received ART, adding that the number rose to 44 per cent in 2008 with 2.9 people estimated to be receiving the life saving medication.
He said stigmatization, distance to health facility, ignorance and negligence, fear of testing positive were some of the barriers to the fight against the disease.
