The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has advised People Living with HIV (PLHIV) to take their Antiretroviral Drugs (ARTs) religiously and to stay on them without defaulting, in order to suppress the virus.

The Director for Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the GAC, Isaiah Doe Kwao, who gave the advice, said that although HIV treatment drugs were available at hospitals, only 57.6 per cent of PLHIV were on them.

He pointed out that people were dying quietly at home because they had either stopped taking the drug or had been persuaded by others not to do so.

Speaking in Accra at a capacity-building workshop organised by the GAC for its media corps, Mr Kwao said it had been scientifically proven that if those on ARTs took their medication religiously for six to 12 months, they would achieve viral suppression.

Viral suppression is the stage at which the HIV virus is suppressed to the point that one can have sex without protection and not transmit the virus to their partners.

“So when you get to that stage, you are what we call ‘U equals U’, meaning the virus is undetectable in you and untransmittable.

This means you can also not transmit to your partner,” he explained.

Mr Kwao added that the commission was witnessing PLHIV not dying and being slim in the current dispensation, a marked departure from the inception era of the outbreak, because of ARTs.

The one-day workshop was on the theme: “Enhancing media engagement for effective HIV communication and advocacy in Ghana”.

He mentioned the reasons people were not taking the ARTs as individual, health system and community factors.

Citing current data from the 2025 National HIV Estimates, Mr Kwao said as of 2025, the number of pregnant women on ARTs was 15,145.

For persons 15 years and above, 136,490 were on ARTs treatment, while for children zero to 14 years, it was 8,680.

He said the number of PLHIV with suppressed viral load was 114,956, with 3,205 of them being children aged zero to 14.

For males aged 15 and above, it was 25,412, while for females aged 15 and above, it was 86,339.

On the progress made towards the global 95-95-95 target, Mr Kwao said that out of 337,435 PLHIV in the country, 236,143 or 70 per cent knew their statuses.

For those with known status, 190,413, representing 81 per cent, are on ARTs, while 174,692, representing 92 per cent, have reached viral suppression.

On reaching epidemic control for HIV, which had to do with controlling new infections and AIDS deaths, the GAC’s director for research, monitoring and evaluation stated that even though Ghana was doing well, the commission was working assiduously to bring the numbers sharply within the appreciable levels.

The Country Programme Manager of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Dr Ekua E. Houphouët, urged the media to contribute significantly to reducing stigma around HIV and contribute to a future where no person would be discriminated against for their HIV status.

The Director-General of the GAC, Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, said the media was a strategic partner in Ghana’s efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat.

He, therefore, urged them to continue to be ambassadors for accurate information, champions against misinformation and disinformation and advocates for evidence-based public health communication.

As part of the training, the media was taken through issues of stigma and discrimination; human rights and laws, including disclosures and the Family Values and Human Sexuality Bill, otherwise known as the anti-LGBTQ bill.