Over 142,000 people living with HIV without knowing – AIDS Commission

The Acting Director of the Commission, Dr. Cosmos Ohene-Adjei, said this was because most people have never tested for HIV and, therefore, do not know their status.

He was speaking at a virtual media interaction between the Ghana AIDS Commission and the UNAIDS.

According to him, there are about 46,000 persons who know their HIV status, but are not on any form of treatments.

Very few people in Ghana have taken HIV tests Pulse Ghana

“From the recently released 2019 national and sub-national HIV estimate and projections, we realised two striking features: one is; more than 142,000 persons in Ghana are living with HIV but they do not know their HIV positive status because they have never tested,” Dr. Ohene-Adjei said.

“More than 46,000, who know their HIV status, are not on life-saving treatments; that is: they are not on ARVs.”

The Director-General for the Ghana Aids Commission, Kyeremeh Atuahene, also disclosed that more young people were getting infected with HIV.

He said more than 20,000 new infections are recorded in Ghana yearly, most of which are adolescents.

He explained that one out of every five HIV case is usually a youth who is between 15 and 24 years.

Mr. Atuahene called on the government and the general public to support the Commission to be able to cater for HIV patients.

“… anybody who wants to donate please do because we have to take care of the people living with HIV, buy the medicine,” he told Accra-based Starr FM.

“We have to prevent HIV infection, especially among adolescents and young women. You may not know but adolescent, young women between the ages of 15 and 24 account for one in five new infections in the country,” he added.