Greater Accra has highest HIV prevalence rate in Ghana

The Ghana AIDS Commission has revealed that the Greater Accra region now has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country.

Greater Accra has overtaken the Eastern region with a prevalence rate of 3.2 percent in 2015.

“Whereas Eastern region is declining, the Greater Accra prevalence has been increasing for two or three years,” Programme Manager of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACOP), Dr. Stephen Ayisi Addo, said at the launch the 2015 HIV survey in Accra.

He added: “If you look at the trend analysis, the Greater Accra prevalence is almost a plateau compared to all the regions including Eastern Region which is on the decline.

"Eastern Region has the highest gradient of decline, now…there is a game change, we are transitioning to the highest prevalence in Greater Accra region.”

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission Angela El-Adas has stated that the Commission has set a five-year target to ensure 90 percent of people living with HIV know their status.

Under the target, the commission hopes that by the year 2020 people living with the HIV virus would be placed on anti-retroviral drugs.

Ghana’s HIV prevalence rate continues to decline as it currently stands at 1.37 with women making 57 percent and 43 percent made up of men.