Mahama: HIV infections fall

President John Mahama has said new HIV infections have declined consistently for the past few years through the Ghana AIDS Commission’s successful coordination and implementation of the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan from 2011 to 2015.

Mr Mahama told parliament in his State of the Nation address on Thursday February 25 that: “Adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has stabilised over the past three years.

“The current prevalence rate of 1.4% reflects the declining new HIV infections and reduced morbidity and mortality among persons living with HIV.

“Through targeted preventive strategies, new HIV infections have declined.

“We have seen a consistent reduction in new HIV infections from a baseline of 16,200 new infections to 11,356, a 30% decline over the past five years,” President Mahama said.

He said his administration is “aiming to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. We also are aiming to eliminate infections of pregnant mothers and put them on treatment in order that they do not pass the transmission onto their children.

“Mr Speaker, the prevalence of HIV-exposed babies has reduced drastically to 8% at birth and 21% after breastfeeding, down from 32%,” he added.