At least 160,000 persons living with HIV (PLHIVs) in Ghana are currently on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), the Programme Manager of the National AIDs and STI Control at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, has disclosed.
This is nearly 50 per cent of the estimated 334,095 PLHIVs in the country, with about 130,000 having suppressed viral loads.
Since Ghana begun ART in 2003, over 300,000 PLHIVs have been captured on the treatment with 735 ART sites and 6,000 Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) sites dotted across the country.
Dr Addo was speaking at the National HIV/STI Research Dialogue in Accra yesterday on the theme; '20 years of HIV Antiretroviral Treatment in Ghana; Celebrating the Progress, Ending the Epidemic.' Bringing together healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers, the event was to discuss critical insights on HIV/ STI research and prevention to inform decision making going into the future and help Ghana attain its target on HIV/AIDS control by 2030. "Based on the research, it's clear that when you put somebody on treatment and the person adheres, the person's life expectancy and survival is like any other person who doesn't have HIV," Dr Addo, indicated.