HIV/AIDS: stakeholders speak against stigma, encourage testing

Dr Hanson-Nortey addressing the workshop

Calls have been made to the public to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV and rather intensify testing in the wake of increasing infections in the country.

Various stakeholders at a media workshop in Accra recently on the theme “Rethinking HIV interventions for Vulnerable Populations in the country” noted that stigma attached with HIV and AIDS disease remain one of the setbacks that prevent people from checking their status or seeking medical help on the epidemic globally.

Dr Nii Nortey Hanson-Nortey, a public health consultant and Vice Chairman of Ghana Country Coordinating Mechanism of the Global Fund stressed among other things,  the need to reduce stigma surrounding HIV testing as well as make HIV testing centres and kits readily available, especially to key population and vulnerable groups such as young people and female sex workers among others.

Dr Hanson-Nortey also called for the operationalisation of the National AIDS Fund to among other things promote access to healthcare for the vulnerable groups in society.

Dr Henry Nagai, Chief of Party at JSI Care Continuum speaking on updates on HIV and AIDs control in the Western Region said in the rethinking process it was imperative to involve non-health actors for a more comprehensive approach in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

“One of the key things I think can be done in the process of rethinking is reducing stigma” Dr Nagai said.

According to her a Human Rights Steering Committee was setup to include other stakeholders in the universal goal of reducing infections on vulnerable populations.

He said it is a narrow view point that healthcare is only given by healthcare providers or at healthcare institutions. Everything contributes to healthcare giving, iterating the importance of inter-sectorial collaboration with the fight against HIV and AIDs.

“This is because vulnerable populations need direct support from organisations that are not health sector based,” he noted

The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer at the National AIDS Control Programme (National AIDS Control Programme), Kenneth Danso, described the country’s HIV and AIDS prevalence as a “generalised epidemic” and said testing was the only way to put those reactive to the virus on early treatment and for person’s negative to take precautionary measures against the infection.

Mr Danso said testing to know one’s HIV status would enable the country achieve the UNAIDs 95-95-95 target of having 95 per cent of Persons Living with HIV knowing their status, 95 per cent on anti-retroviral treatment and 95 per cent attaining viral suppression by 2025.

Currently, Ghana has achieved 71-99-79 of this target, which implies that more people do not know their HIV status and many of such were also not virally suppressed. 

The President of GHANET, Mr Ernest Ortsin, urged the public to be wary of unorthodox medications purporting to cure HIV/AIDS, saying, “There is no data that proves that traditional medicine can cure HIV.”

“The anti-retroviral medication do not cure HIV/AIDs, they suppress the virus” Thus advising the public to desist from trying to cure the disease with unorthodox medicines.

At the end of 2021, 16,938 new HIV infections were recorded in the country. Recent data from the NACP indicated that a total of 23,495 tested positive for HIV in Ghana for the first half of this year.

In Ghana out of every 100 people tested, two were likely to have the infection.

The workshop was organised by Ghana HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET) with sponsorship from PEPFAR, USAID, EPIC, through Civil Society Institute for HIV and Health in West and Central Africa (CSHU-WCA) and ENDA SANTE (Senegal).

By Portia Hutton-Mills