The Ada East District recorded two Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive cases in babies born to HIV-positive mothers, Mr. Adator Anani, the Ada East District HIV Programmes Coordinator, has revealed.
Speaking at the 2023 Half-Year Performance Review of the Ada East District Health Directorate, he said the two positive cases were gotten from a total of 52 babies tested in the Early Infant Diagnosis (EID).
Mr. Anani said 65 expectant mothers in 2022 tested positive for HIV, and their babies were therefore required to undergo the EID for prompt diagnosis of HIV in infants.
He said for the first half of this year (2023), they recorded 20 HIV positive pregnant women adding that they conducted EID for 31 babies with no positive cases recorded.
He said the 31 was an indication that there was a spillover in the EID from the last year of babies delivered to HIV-positive mothers.
He said Ada East had a reduction in its prevalence rate to 2.28 percent for 2022 compared to the 4.56 percent seen in 2021, however, more work needed to be done as the district’s figures were still higher than the 2.05 per cent prevalence of the Greater Accra Region.
He said in 2022, a total of 3,650 people were tested for HIV in the district, out of which 250 turned out positive and between January and June 2023, a total of 678 had already been tested, of which 95 were HIV positive.
On viral load, he said it showed the way the drug was performing in the patient’s system, adding that if the viral load was low, it meant that the drug was working well and the risk of transmitting the disease to others was also low.
Mr. Anani stated that for 2022, even though they were expected to get viral suppression tests for 582 patients, they were able to do 339, which he described as low.
He added that for 2023, the expectation was that at least half of the people on treatment would have the viral suppression test, stating, however, that they have currently done 723.
He said of the 723, 680 of them were from the Ada East District Hospital, eight from Ada Health Centre, 17 from Kasseh Health Centre, and 18 from Healthstar Clinic, which had only 30 HIV patients.
Mr. Anani explained that it has been observed that patients who go for treatment at Kasseh Health Centre often go in the afternoon, affecting the viral suppression test as the laboratory would have closed at the time of their visit.
He said for the Ada Health Centre, most of them were receiving the treatment at home, as a dedicated and compassionate nurse took the medicine to them as the patients complained of having to pay a transport fare to go to the centre for it themselves.
He explained that this, however, was affecting their test, adding that the Directorate was considering putting in measures that would ensure that a lab technician would accompany the nurse to the homes to take the sample for processing alongside them.
He said the HIV services in the district were doing well due to the dedicated staff providing such services, adding that some of the trained nurses had left for greener pastures.
He said they also have a constant supply of logistics, engage more with clients, and have a quick resolution of their challenges, adding that expansion of coverage has also been done as they now use many of the CHPs compounds as anti-retroviral treatment (ART) services for easy access to treatment.
He said they were looking forward to reducing the district’s new infections by ensuring that all positive pregnant women and nursing mothers were put on treatment and that they stayed on it as a way of reducing the transmission from mother to child.
He also said they would expand HIV testing and treatment to all patients, especially mothers going through the family planning unit, adding that they also want to do contact tracing to ensure that all partners of those who are positive will be tested.
The HIV Coordinator urged sexually active persons to make use of condoms while encouraging the youth to practice abstinence.
GNA