People living with the HIV/AIDS in the country are dying at a faster rate due to their inability to procure the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, a study has revealed.
The study, conducted by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research showed that only 5,000 out of the 71,000 HIV patients are currently on the ARV treatment.
Most of them cannot afford to pay the minimum ?50,000 monthly for the supply of the drugs, said Dr Charles Allotey, head of the Catholic pharmaceutical services quoting the study.
He was speaking at a workshop on ?Assessment of public and private ARV treatment programme in Ghana,? in Accra last Thursday.
The research, funded by the Health Action International, Europe, aimed at studying public-private interactions with regard to the provision of ARV treatment and to identify some of the factors that have constrained access to ARVs.
Dr Allotey said the study showed that the treatment sites, situated mostly in the southern part of the country, had constrained ARV use.
The number of sites have increased from five to 25, and include all the 10 hospitals, six sites of the catholic church, four supporting sites and three private sites.
