UNAIDS head lauds Ghana's fight against HIV

The executive director of the United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), Michel Sidibe, has praised Ghana for being one of the few countries that had been able to stabilize the HIV/AIDS epidemic and reduce significantly the number of new infections. Sidibe, who arrived here on Wednesday for a three-day official visit to the West African nation, said Ghana was showing the way for the continent, demonstrating that when the leadership and government system were well-established, it could transform the economy and ensure that the quality of life of the people could be better. "For us, zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero death is not just a magic number but it is for us a fight for social justice; it is about redistribution of opportunity and making society more inclusive," he told the media before meeting officials of the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC) and the Minister of Health, Alban Kingsford Bagbin. Sidibe is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills and hold a roundtable discussion on progress in the national AIDS response and challenges in achieving the target set at the June 2011 United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS. The discussion, to be chaired by Vice President John Dramani Mahama and attended by policy makers, program implementers and UN officials, will also focus on national efforts at "Getting to zero": Zero new HIV infections, Zero AIDS-related deaths and Zero discrimination. He is expected to visit a number of sites in the capital, including the La General Hospital, a facility which provides comprehensive services to pregnant women living with HIV to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies. Sidibe will also visit a local pharmaceutical manufacturing company for HIV medications and make a journey to the ongoing first ever national HIV and AIDS Fair held by the Ghana AIDS Commission. UNAIDS report showed that about 1.5 percent of the population of 24 millions in Ghana are living with HIV and there are an estimated 12,890 new HIV infections over the country. Though recent trends indicate a decline in national HIV prevalence, there still exist pockets of high prevalence in specific locations and among some sub-populations. Moreover, maintaining a low epidemic in Ghana through a sustained multi-sectoral response to the epidemic will be a challenge due to the decrease in HIV funding globally. Sidibe is expected to take his visit to reiterate the theme of his recent speech at the African Union Summit where he called on African leaders to take on a greater share of domestic investments in the AIDS response. The GAC has developed a National Strategic Plan for a HIV and AIDS (NSP 2011-2015), aimed at guiding resource mobilization and prioritizing sub-populations, regions and prevention of the epidemic. The plan has set ambitious targets of reducing by 50 percent all new infections by 2015, eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 and sustain and scale up HIV treatment for all in need. The Ghanaian government has provided 150 million cedis, or 88 million U.S. dollars, to support the implementation of the five- year program.