Over 19,000 Ghanaians tested positive for HIV in 2017 – AIDS Commission

The Ghana AIDS Commission has revealed that over 19,000 Ghanaians tested positive for HIV/AIDS in 2017.This, the commission has described as “worrying”, adding that the majority of this number are youths.

The Commission said a total of 19,101 persons tested positive for the virus.

Also, the national prevalence rate stands at 1.67 with 19,101 new infections in 2017 with about 700 deaths.

This was revealed by the Volta Regional HIV Manager, Courage Botchway, who was reportedly speaking at the launch of the 2018 World AIDS Day in Ho.

“Among the general population, the national prevalence is 1.67. It is estimated that in 2017 new infections were 19,101,” Mr. Botchway reportedly said.

He said all is not lost for persons with the HIV virus because there are medications specially designed for such people.

Botchway further urged the public to check their HIV statuses, adding that all hope is not lost when one gets the disease.

“Once you test positive, you are put on ARVs, previously, there were certain criteria that you had to meet before you were put on the medication but from 2017 anybody who is HIV positive has the right to be put on medication once the person is willing,” he added.

Meanwhile, the acting director of the AIDS Commission, Dr. Steve Kyeremeh Atuahene, has disclosed that more of the youth are getting infected with HIV/AIDS.

He said this is as a result of “high-risk sex” which is on the increase among the youths. Explaining further, Dr Atuahene he said “high-risk sex” is the situation whereby one engages in sex with a multiple partners without using protection.

“The statistics are not different [from two years ago]. What is different is that we are seeing more and more infections among young people. And we need to tackle that,” he said.

“There are more and more young people who engage in multiple concurrent partnerships. And some are also involved in serial monogamy – they switch partners over time and in quick succession and that exposes them HIV infections,” Dr. Atuahene added.