The Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, Ms Angeli Achrekar, has called on Ghana and other African countries to urgently strengthen community-led approaches as a critical strategy to curb rising HIV infections among young people.
“When it comes to reaching young people, we must work with young people to reach young people.
Community delivery, community response and community leadership have always been at the heart of the HIV response, but they must now be fully supported, properly resourced and sustained with the youth in mind,” she said.
Ms. Achrekar was addressing a news conference on the sidelines of this year’s International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), held on the theme: “Africa in Action: Catalysing Integrated and Resilient Health Systems for Sustainable Responses to End HIV, Other Infectious Diseases, and Emerging Threats.”
Recent data from the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) reveal that about 15,290 new HIV infections were recorded in 2024.
Of this figure, about 4,732, representing 31 per cent were among young people aged 15 to 24.
Overall, about 334,721 Ghanaians are currently living with HIV.
The UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, expressing concern that only 66 per cent of people living with HIV in Ghana know their status, stressed that testing remains critical to linking people to care.
She said self-testing, long-acting injectable prevention medicines, combination prevention and youth-led outreach were key strategies needed to close existing gaps and reach young people.
“AIDS is not over. There are thousands of new infections happening every single day among adolescent girls and boys.
This is unacceptable and we must stop it,” she stressed.
Ms. Achrekar noted that although some African countries have achieved the 95-95-95 targets ahead of the 2030 deadline, an achievement she described as extraordinary, it remains important for countries to look inward to identify remaining gaps in the HIV response.
“We are in the face of incredible opportunities with innovation, technology and community systems but African countries have to prioritize by resourcing their HIV responses, making sure that there’s adequate funding for both treatment and prevention.
We have to make sure that communities lead in the responses and we have to absolutely make sure that we do not stop now until we end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,” she added.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
