About 80 per cent of Ghana’s estimated 346,120 HIV infections at the close of 2020 were females, the National AIDS/STI Control Programme (NACP) has disclosed.
The national prevalence was 1.7 per cent.
Programme Manager of NACP, Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, who disclosed this at the fifth stakeholder engagement organized by the Ghana News Agency – Tema Regional office, explained that females formed the greater number of HIV infections mainly due to gender inequalities, adding that, one could not talk about HIV without gender issues.
He said the female reproductive tract was different from that of the male as the vaginal was a receptacle and therefore holds fluids for a long time, putting them at risk of easily contracting the virus from their partners.
The NACP Programme Manager added that females were also disadvantaged, as they did not have the ability to negotiate access to resources, saying men also have the money to buy sex rather than the woman who is selling it.
“Inequality in our gender is a major factor, a man will find it comfortable to demand for condom, but not a woman even in the marriage relationship, she is afraid that she will be accused. People think that men can keep condoms but not women,” he said.
Dr Ayisi Addo said a lot of factors including biological and socio-economic issues come into play when talking about HIV infection rates.
He stated that as part of the HIV Control Programme, NACP outfits were doing their best to eliminate transmission from mother to child by screening every pregnant woman, and those who tested positive were put on antiretroviral drugs to prevent them from passing on the virus to their unborn babies.
Dr Ayisi Addo said as part of primary prevention in the public, when a pregnant woman test positive, her partner and children would be traced, counselled and tested as there was the probability of them also being infected.
He disclosed that they were also offering services like pre-exposure prophylaxis, which allows people to take medications before a sexual act to reduce the risk of contracting HIV.
He added however that, the medication was currently not available for distribution to the public, but only key population and persons in relationships with persons living with HIV, saying, one had to meet some conditions to qualify to receive the medication from the hospitals.
He called on the public to desist from stigmatizing and discriminating against persons living with HIV as such acts could lead to them hiding and spreading the virus.
GNA Tema Regional Manager, Francis Ameyibor, said the stakeholders’ engagement which takes place on the last Wednesday of every month, was a progressive media caucus platform created to give the opportunity to both state and non-state stakeholders to interact with journalists and address national issues.