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Ghana Homes and Health Issues

Source: USAID, S. Knott, UK -
Overall HIV Trends in W.Africa - Nov 2009
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in West Africa has remained relatively stable with comparatively lower HIV prevalence than the epidemics in East and Southern Africa. Based on 2005 data, close to 6 million people in countries supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in West Africa are living with HIV/AIDS. Nigeria alone has the second-largest number of people living with HIV after South Africa. Of the countries in the region with available data, one (Cameroon) has a national HIV prevalence of more than 5 percent. Six countries (Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo) have prevalence rates between 2 and 5 percent, and eleven (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone) have rates of less than 2 percent.

The AIDS epidemic is evolving; HIV prevention programmes are not rapidly adjusting
The double report also shows that the face of the epidemic is changing and that prevention efforts are not keeping pace with this shift. For example the epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia once characterized by injecting drug use is now spreading to the sexual partners of people who inject drugs. Similarly in parts of Asia an epidemic once characterized by transmission through sex work and injecting drug use is now increasingly affecting heterosexual couples.

Data show that few HIV prevention programmes exist for people over 25, married couples or people in stable relationships, widowers and divorcees. These are the same groups in which HIV prevalence has been found to be high in many sub-Saharan countries. For example in Swaziland people over the age of 25 accounted for more than two thirds of adult infections yet very few HIV prevention programmes are designed for older people.

Funding for HIV prevention has become the smallest percentage of the HIV budgets of many countries. For example in Swaziland, just 17% of the country’s total budget for AIDS was spent on prevention despite a national HIV prevalence rate of 26%. In Ghana, the prevention budget was cut in 2007 by 43% from 2005 levels.

Building capacity: new social networking site for global AIDS community
Building on the need to maximize results and to better connect the 33.4 million people living with HIV and the millions of people who are part of the AIDS response, UNAIDS has launched AIDSspace.org. This social networking site is open to the community and is free.

AIDSspace.org aims to expand informal and established networks to include more people interested in HIV to maximize resources for a stronger AIDS response. The premise behind AIDSspace is simple: if hundreds of millions of people can connect on some of the most popular social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube) to connect, exchange ideas, post and share HIV-related content, they can do the same for HIV related content - including key policies, case studies, multimedia materials, conference posters, reports and other essential resources. Users can also find and post jobs and reviews on service providers on AIDSspace.org.