Northern region has made some gains in the fight against HIV prevalence in two years. The prevalence reduced from 0.7% in 2022 to 0.38% in 2023 for all age groups.
In 2024, the region screens a total of 101,604 as compared to 138,040 in 2023. The region detected 911 cases (0.87% positivity rate) in 2024 as compared to 951 cases (0.9% positivity rate) in 2023 for the general population.
Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Abukari Abdulai who revealed this this at the 2024 annual performance review stated that region have an estimated number of people living with HIV to be 4,844 in 2024.
On the progress towards the 95-95-95 Targets, the region performed slightly better from the 84-69-90 in 2023 to 90-72-80 in 2024 due to improvement in monitoring and addressing data quality issues in addition to adherence counselling, multi-month scripting (giving medicines up to 6 months).
The performance in the viral load testing Dr Abukari said improved due to the increased in the number of facilities with Gen-Expert machines from 6 in 2023 to 11 in 2024.
The region also witness improvement in the supply of reagents at testing sites and other viral load testing logistics. The region he added recorded (3506/4844) 72% as the overall Anti-Retroviral Therapy coverage rate in 2024 as compared with a coverage of 61% recorded in 2023.
All districts in the region Dr Abukari revealed were able to access the 0.5% of the District Assemblies Common Fund allocated for activities towards the prevention of HIV.
He however expressed worried that District Health Management Teams have not been fully involved in the activities in the utilization of these funds and hope it doesn’t continue this year.
Clinical and public health service
Clinical services both Outpatient and Inpatient services in the northern region during the year under review witnessed a slight increase in 2024 as compared to the figures in 2023.
The total OPD attendance increased from 1,380,729 in 2023 to 1,474,294 in 2024. Similarly, the total Hospital admissions increased from 188,937 in 2023 to 191,232 in 2024.
Total Deaths however rosed from 4,256 in 2023 to 4,464 in 2024. The proportion of insured patients at OPD Dr Abukari revealed increased marginally from 87% in 2023 to 88% in 2024.
In 2024, the region’s OPD per Capita he added declined slightly from 0.57 in 2023 to 0.56 far below the region’s target of 1.00. mentioned some of the challenges that accounted for the low OPD per Capita in addition to intermittent shortages of medicines at health facilities, emergency of new health facilities, especially within the Tamale Metropolis who are not reporting in the DHIMS2 platform, the operations of several unlicensed Over-the-Counter -Medicine shops and Drug peddlers across the region with some operators detaining and admitting patients in their shops.
The issue he said has been brought to the attention of Food & Drug Authority, Health Facilities Regulatory Agency and Pharmacy Council for action.
