Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr. Kyeremeh Atuahene, has revealed that financial constraints have forced the commission to ration anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV.
Due to lack of government support, medicines are now distributed between two to three months instead of the allocated six months.
The commission struggles to meet the demand for drugs, leading to the need for rationing. Dr. Atuahene urged individuals and groups to donate to the AIDS fund to bridge the funding gap, which currently stands at 66%.
“We have a huge funding gap, if we run short of medicine, it’s like people who are on oxygen and the obvious end is death when oxygen is taken off.
Currently, there’s no specific budgetary allocation for HIV programmes.
“Once in a while, we get something from National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The funding gap is 66%. We need Ghanaians to support us by dialling USSD *989# to donate to support the AIDS fund”.
Ghana recorded a total of 16,574 new cases of HIV infections in 2022, compared to 18,036 infections in 2021.
The new infections were spread across all age groups, with the majority among people aged 15 and above.