AIDS

THE Ghana AIDS Commission has received $11 million from development partners for the treatment, care and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Ghana.
That was part of the annual disbursement for HIV network to fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
The HIV/AIDS network was supposed to deal with the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS in all sectors of development co-operation.
It is the core element of the policy on HIV/AIDS of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development.
Addressing the participants at the Anglophone Africa Network meeting in Accra yesterday, the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Prof Sakyi Awuku Amoa, said more than half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa experienced a generalised epidemic of the HIV/AIDS.
"Until we tackle this epidemic with all seriousness it deserves, the developmental gains achieved over the last century in Africa may be wiped away," Prof Amoa said.
He added that it was for that reason development partners and the United Nations agencies came together to support African countries with the technical and financial assistance to curb the pandemic.
He said three million people, on the average, died of HIV-related illnesses annually, with about 80 per cent of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.
He explained that Eastern and Southern Africa reported the highest rates of HIV infection in the continent, of which more than half of the countries in the sub-Saharan Africa experienced a generalised epidemic.
"Stabilisation of the epidemic in Ghana could not have been achieved without the invaluable contribution of our development partners," he stated.
Prof Amoa noted that Ghana had made significant reduction in the rate of HIV from 2.22 per cent in 2006 to 1.9 per cent in 2007 from the support of the development partners.