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Ghana’s National AIDS Commission
reported that innovative peer counseling programs delivered by groups like the
West Africa Program to Combat AIDS and STI (WAPCAS) helped to lower HIV
incidence among Ghana’s sex workers from 37.8 percent in 2006 to 11.2 percent
in 2012. Overall HIV prevalence in Ghana is 1.5 percent. WAPCAS
services—prevention, counseling, free HIV testing, and referrals to care—target
sex workers, HIV-infected individuals, men who have sex with men (MSM), and
injection drug users. WAPCAS’s chief goals included raising awareness of HIV
and sexually transmitted infections and “teaching people how to avoid them.”
Sex work and gay sex are illegal in
Ghana, which makes MSM and sex workers vulnerable, since they have no legal
recourse to abuse and exploitation. WAPCAS educators believed outreach had been
successful because peer educators had the target audience’s interests at heart.
As a result, sex workers had a better understanding and more confidence in
practicing safer sex with male or female condoms.
Working with MSM and lesbians is
more complicated because of social stigma and Ghana’s religious and cultural
norms. HIV prevalence among MSM is 25 percent. According to Nii Akwei Addo,
head of Ghana’s National AIDS Control Programme, anti-HIV groups had to strike
a balance that helped MSM practice safer sex without encouraging MSM sex. The
Ghana Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights has conducted successful
MSM peer educator programs and reported that increased access to antiretroviral
therapy, HIV testing, counseling, and referrals helped to lower HIV deaths
among MSM within the last four years.
Other vulnerable populations
comprised sex workers’ non-paying partners such as spouses and former clients.
Additionally, some MSM might take heterosexual partners to conceal their sexual
preference, which puts those partners at risk. Akwei Addo confirmed the
importance of taking services to these vulnerable populations and encouraging
safer sex.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus.
To learn more about The Friends of
AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
