Commodity stock report

The commodity stock report elaborated by the Ghana Health Services/Ministry of Health under the umbrella of the Global Fund Logistics Support Project, provides insights into the national availability of key HIV and other health commodities. The recently released information for the month of February contains the below mentioned information on the availability of antiretroviral treatment and other HIV commodities.

• Antiretroviral treatment:
• Tenofovir/Lamivudine/Dolutegravir (TLD 300/300/50mg): Fully available nationwide with a slight overstock - 12.85 months of stock.
• Dolutegravir 50mg: Fully available with overstock – 18.19 months of stock.
• Tenofovir/Lamivudine (300/300mg): Overstock - 41.62 months of stock
• Lopinavir/Ritonavir (200/50mg): Fully available with overstock - 17.83 months of stock. Nevertheless, there is only 64% availability across regional medical stores, with stockouts in Ashanti, Bono and Bono East regions. Distribution to these regions aims to stabilize supply.
• Dolutegravir 10mg: Adequate stock - 10.85 months of stock with 91% availability at regional medical stores and teaching hospitals. Allocation and distribution measures aim to stabilize supply.
• Abacavir/Lamivudine (120/60mg): Critically low stock levels at 1.22 months of stock with 64% availability at regional medical stores; new shipments are pending clearance.
• Paediatric and syrup formulations: Zidovudine/Lamivudine tablet stock is high (25.27 months of stock). Nevirapine syrup is fully available (6.38 MoS), there are lower stock levels of Zidovudine syrup (3.17 months of stock), with an incoming shipment expected.
• HIV and syphilis diagnostics:
  • OraQuick HIV test kits: Availability improved from 91% in January to 100% in February (4.93 months of stock).
  • HIV first response & syphilis combo test kits: Consistently at 100% availability (6.45 and 9.54 months of stock respectively).
  • Rapid diagnostic tests SD bioline: Stockouts in Ashanti and Bono, with critically low in-country stocks (0.87 months of stock). A shipment of 75,240 kits is expected in April 2025.

Politically relevant updates

• Ghana Medical Trust Fund:  The Government of Ghana has launched the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (Mahama Cares Initiative). This presidential initiative, launched in mid-March, aims to provide financial support for people with chronic diseases. The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and the UNAIDS Country Office have initiated discussions  to potentially include HIV as one of the health conditions to be covered by this mechanism.  This alternative has been also included as part of the options to explore in Ghana’s Sustainability Roadmap document. UNAIDS is providing support to the GAC to amend the terms of reference for the HIV Sustainability Technical Working group to include the documentation of the impact of US funding cuts as part of the mechanisms to streamline the coordination, monitoring and mitigation of the situation.

• Human rights steering committee meeting: On 26 March, the Ghana AIDS Commission convened the 7th Human Rights Steering Committee Meeting, chaired by the Acting Director General. The meeting included key national and international partners, including UNAIDS, to advance the human rights agenda within the HIV response. The Committee recommended strategic engagement with the PEPFAR Coordinator to get accurate programmatic and financial information on human rights-related interventions supported by the US.
• Courtesy visit from PEPFAR team to the Ghana AIDS Commission: On 3 April, a PEPFAR team delegation led by the PEPFAR Coordinator for West Africa II Region (Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali), paid a courtesy visit to the Acting Director of the Ghana AIDS Commission and his team. This was the first official meeting of the PEPFAR Team with the Ghana AIDS Commission since January. Initial discussions on the relevance of PEPFAR’s support to the HIV response in Ghana took place.
• Bilateral Meeting UCD-Ghana and PEPFAR Coordinator for West Africa II: On 4 April, a bilateral meeting was held at the UNAIDS country office between the UNAIDS country director and the PEPFAR Coordinator for West Africa II Region (Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Mali).  The iscussion focused on the critical need to maintain US support in Ghana to ensure programmatic sustainability, to achieve the 95-95-95 and 10-10-10 targets, and to continue the collaboration in support of the process led by the Government of Ghana to develop the HIV Sustainability Roadmap. 

• Coordination with Civil Society Organizations and communities.

  On 3 April, UNAIDS Country Office initiated a series of bi-weekly meetings with community-led organizations to assess the impact of the US funding cuts on their work, including their focus on human rights, stigma and discrimination, and HIV prevention. The community-led organizations agreed to design a tool to map out the projects previously funded by the US Government that have stopped and to find alternatives to close the gaps and maximize efficiency in the delivery of programmes.