Narda* is 31 years old and lives in Ghana’s Ahafo Region. He is HIV positive. He interrupted his HIV treatment for six months because he got dizzy whenever he took his antiretroviral drugs.
Staff from the USAID Strengthening the Care Continuum project team educated Narda on the importance of staying on treatment to keep a low viral load. They referred him to a health facility, which adjusted his medication to stop the dizziness. He is now adherent and feeling well.
Yet living with HIV was hard for Narda because he saw his status as a barrier to achieving his dreams. “I want to have a family, but I was afraid that my future wife and children would contract HIV,” said Narda. “I now know that people living with HIV who are on treatment can achieve viral suppression and be unable to transmit the virus.”
Undetectable = Untransmittable
U=U refers to a person living with HIV who takes antiretrovirals and has achieved an undetectable viral load, making the virus untransmittable. Narda is focused on achieving viral suppression and realizing his dream. “I will get to U=U and then I will be ready to marry and have children.”
Narda is among over 1,200 people in the Ahafo Region who interrupted treatment and whom the Care Continuum project returned to care between October 2019 and March 2023. The Care Continuum and its partners are actively promoting the U=U campaign to ensure people living with HIV and are on treatment achieve viral suppression.
The USAID Strengthening the Care Continuum project supports over 36,000 people living with HIV in the Western Region (over 22,000 people), Western North Region (over 8,000), and Ahafo Region (over 6,000). The project is designed to strengthen the capacity of the Government of Ghana and its partners to provide quality, comprehensive HIV services for people living with HIV in the three regions.
*For privacy reasons, his name has been changed.
