Minister expresses worry at high HIV prevalence

The Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso, has expressed worry at the high HIV prevalence at Agomanya in the Lower Manya Krobo District.

She, therefore, called for concerted efforts from all eminent citizens in the area to mobilize resources to fight the spread of the disease.

Ms Ntoso urged members of the Eastern Region AIDS Committee to consider changes in strategies to help reduce the HIV prevalence in the region.

Ms Ntoso expressed the concern when members of the Eastern Regional AIDS Committee called on her in her office in Koforidua to brief her about the HIV situation in the area.

The Region had been recording the highest HIV prevalence in the country for the past 20 years except in 2011 when it placed second to the Central Region.

Last year, the region recorded 3.6 percent in the national HIV sentinel survey as against the national prevalence of 2.1 percent. The Agomanya sentinel site recorded 10.1 percent, the highest in the country.

Ms Ntoso promised to lead in mobilizing funds from within the country and outside to enable the region to aggressively fight the spread of HIV in the region.

She assured members of the committee of her determination to mobilize the various District and Municipal Assemblies in the region to set aside the portion of their Common Fund for HIV activities to help fight the spread of the disease.

Dr Sampson Ofori, a member of the committee, informed the Regional Minister that the region has 13,000 people living with the HIV with 9,600 on anti-retroviral treatment with the rest on opportunistic infection treatment.

He said 65 percent out the number of people living with HIV in the region are women.

Dr Ofori said the Regional and the District AIDS Committee and some members of the region had worked hard to bring down the HIV prevalence of the region from 7.9 in 2002 to 3.6 this year.

However, he observed that, the greatest challenge to the efforts of the Regional AIDS committee and others is the lack of adequate funding to support the implementation of HIV activities in the region.

Dr Ofori said shortage of necessary logistics like HIV testing kits, CD4 reagents, and early infants diagnosis reagents, are adversely affecting service providers and People Living with HIV.