Preventing HIV spread - Ghana shows leadership
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that Ghana has made progress in preventing the spread of HIV, with new infections among children declining by 76 per cent between 2009 and 2012.
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It shows that Ghana has been a leader among the 22 priority countries chosen under the Global Plan joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS.
According to the UNICEF Ghana Deputy Representative, Rushnan Murtaza, “This report shows clearly the success of Ghana, led by the government, to protect its children against HIV.”
The 2013 Stocktaking Report on Children and AIDS, however, raises alarm on adolescents, citing the need for increased global efforts to address HIV and AIDS among this vulnerable age group.
The report coincided with the celebration of World AIDS Day, which fell on December 1, 2013.
AIDS-related deaths
According to the report, AIDS-related deaths among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 globally increased by 50 per cent between 2005 and 2012, rising from 71,000 to 110,000.
It showed that approximately 2.1 million adolescents were living with HIV in 2012 globally.
It states that Ghana has made great progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission, with more eligible women now receiving anti-retroviral treatment.
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Analysis
A new analysis featured in the global stocktaking report showed that by increasing investment in high-impact interventions to about US$5.5 billion globally by 2014, two million adolescents, particularly girls, could avoid becoming infected by 2020. Investments in 2010 were US$3.8 billion.
The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Mr Michel Sidibe, said because of a new, simplified, life-long anti-retroviral treatment (known as Option B+), there was a greater opportunity to effectively treat women living with HIV and prevent the transmission of the virus to their babies during pregnancy, delivery and through breastfeeding.
The treatment involves a daily one-pill regimen.
The UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake, for his part, believes that “high-impact interventions are scaled up using an integrated approach, the number of new infections among adolescents could be halved by 2020.”
High-impact interventions include condom use, anti-retroviral treatment, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, voluntary medical male circumcision and communications for behaviourial change.