The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has indicated that the HIV and AIDS prevalence rate in the country is gradually increasing.

“These day’s people see me and ask, so is this HIV still in existence. And so I think we shouldn’t rest on our oars.”

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The commission says preventive education has not been very effective these days

A document presented showed that new HIV infections in 2016 increased to 20, 418 from about 12,000 new infections recorded in 2015.

Meanwhile, a total of 15,116 people in Ghana died of HIV and AIDS-related illness in 2016.

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Out of the total AIDS-related deaths, 12,585, representing 83 percent were adults while 2,531 representing 17 percent were children under 14 years.

Again, an estimate of 293,804 people are living with HIV (PLHIV) while 261,770 (89 percent) are adults and 32,034 (11 percent) of the estimates being children.

Among the PLHIV, 115.244 (39 percent) are males and 178,560 (61 percent are females).

According to the Director-General of GAC, their major challenge is financial constraints.

She said without money they could not finance their strategic plan for 2018. She suggested that they could only achieve their objectives through the implementation of the provision of the GAC ACT 938, especially the HIV and AIDS Fund and its effective management.

She called on all stakeholders to support them in their fight against HIV/AIDS for the good of the country.