[ 2017-04-27 ]

Dr Osei-Kwasi pledged that the board would work assiduously to achieve its goal

Ghana AIDS Commission gets new board
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has
inaugurated the re-constituted 19-member governing
board of the Ghana AIDS Commission, with a charge
on the members to use their resourcefulness to
mobilise the requisite resources for the
prosecution of the commission’s “ambitious”
five-year national HIV and AIDS strategic plan.

The President observed that financial support from
friends of Ghana in tackling the disease kept
dwindling, for which reason the National HIV and
AIDS Fund was expected to be established to
mobilise resources, especially from the private
sector, to provide reliable and adequate funding
for the national response to HIV and AIDS.

“I am confident that with your resourcefulness,
hard work and commitment, we can achieve the
targets set for ourselves and resolve our issues
here, including that of office space,” he said.

Membership

The 19-member board is chaired by the President
and has as members the Minister of Health, Mr
Kwaku Agyemang-Manu; the Minister of Gender,
Children and Social Protection, Madam Otiko Afisa
Djaba; the Minister of Local Government and Rural
Development, Hajia Alima Mahama; the
Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr
Mokowaa Blay Adu, and the Director-General of the
Ghana Health Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare.

The others are the Executive Director of the
National Population Council, Dr Leticia A. Appiah;
the Government Statistician, Mr Baah Wadieh; the
President of the Ghana HIV and AIDS Network
(GHANET), Mr Victor Attah Ntumi; the President of
the Network of Association of Persons Living with
HIV (NAP+), Mr Emmanuel Beluzebr Suurkure; the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP)
for Atwima Kwanwoma, Dr Kojo Appiah-Kubi, and the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Wa
Central, Alhaji Dr Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo.

The rest include the representative of Christian
groups, Rev. Father Lazarus Anondee; the
representative of Muslim councils and the
Ahmadiyya Mission, Dr Mubarak Osei-Kwasi; the
representative of the National House of Chiefs,
Kuoro Richard Babini Kanton; the representative of
the Ghana Employers Association, Mrs Victoria
Hajar, and two presidential appointees, Mrs Lucy
B. Ofori Ayeh and Dr Daniel Oduro-Mensah.

History of HIV and AIDS

President Akufo-Addo said the nation had come a
long way from the 1980s when the first AIDS case
was diagnosed.

He recalled that during the early years,
scientific knowledge on the virus and the AIDS
epidemic was very limited and that resulted in
high levels of stigma and discrimination.

But, today, he said, being infected with the virus
did not mean progressing to AIDS due to the
availability and easy accessibility of
anti-retroviral drugs, for which reason persons
living with HIV could now live healthy, long and
productive lives.

“Through our collective efforts, we have
achieved a steady but gradual decline in our HIV
prevalence from 3.6 per cent in 2003 to 1.6 per
cent in 2015,” he said.

Greater response required

However, President Akufo-Addo said whereas the
general population enjoyed a low prevalence, there
were some segments of the population that had
recorded very high prevalence levels.

For instance, he said, among female sex workers,
prevalence was seven per cent, while for men who
had sex with men, prevalence was 17.5 per cent.

“These undoubtedly point to the need for us, as
a people, to extend HIV prevention and
interventions to all segments of our population to
ensure that no one is left behind,” he said.

Attaining an HIV-free Ghana

Currently, the President said, the country was
implementing the national strategic plan,
2016-2020, which was in alignment with the global
United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS)
aspirational targets which required that by 2020,
90 per cent of all people infected with HIV would
know their status, that 90 per cent of all people
diagnosed with HIV would receive sustained
anti-retroviral therapy and that 90 per cent of
all people receiving anti-retroviral therapy would
be virally suppressed.

These targets are aimed at eliminating AIDS by
2030, in line with the Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) Three, which ensures the health and
well-being of all at every stage of life.

Board’s response

Dr Osei-Kwasi, who spoke on behalf of the board,
said the declining prevalent rate of the disease
in the country might tempt people to think that
the war against HIV and AIDS had been won.

However, he noted that contrary to that, the
disease continued to pose a major challenge to
national development and required enhanced effort
to eliminate.

He pledged that the board would work assiduously
to achieve that goal.

Source - Graphic Online.com

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