The Ghana AIDS Commission says women account for more than three times as many people living with HIV as men in Ghana, with biological differences and lower rates of testing among males contributing to the disparity.
The Commission made the assessment after publishing its 2025 National HIV Estimates, which put the total number of people living with HIV in Ghana at 337,435.
According to the report, for every 100 men living with the virus, there are more than three times as many women. The Ghana AIDS Commission said the figures reflect both the greater biological vulnerability of women during sexual intercourse and differences in the way men and women access health services.
Dr Fred Nana Poku, Director of Technical Services at the Ghana AIDS Commission, said sexual transmission remains the main route through which HIV is spread in Ghana, accounting for about 80 per cent of infections.
“There are biological and physiological factors that make ladies more susceptible and easily affected by HIV,” he said.
Explaining the biological factors, he said women were more exposed to infection because of the structure of the vagina.
“Eighty per cent of all HIV infections is through sexual transmission – so there’s sexual intercourse. Now, during sexual intercourse, the ladies are more susceptible because of the nature of their external genitalia – their vagina,” he explained.
“It’s a broad-surface organ, with a large mucosa. When you spread the mucosa out, it’s a very large surface area, and the transmission or exchange of the virus occurs across the mucosa – the lining – and it has a bigger lining compared to the male’s.”
The Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Kharmacelle Prosper Akanbong, also attributed the higher number of infections among women to biological differences between the sexes.
“The vagina is a receptacle which receives all the volume of sperms with all the viruses. So there’s no escape route,” he said.
“For the male, he needs some cuts, pulmonary tract infections, other mucosal bridges to be able to get the infection.”
However, the Commission said the statistics may not provide a complete picture of HIV among men because women are generally more likely to take an HIV test and learn their status.
Dr Akanbong questioned whether the apparent gap would remain as wide if men tested at the same rate as women.
“If men were testing equivalently as women, would we be having these disparities in the statistics?” he asked.
He urged the media to help promote HIV testing among men, saying greater participation would provide a more accurate assessment of the national situation.
“We need to vamp up male-testing services – it gives us a better picture of the national prevalence than just focusing on the women testing,” he said.
The Commission also referred to evidence from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, which found that women generally demonstrate stronger health-seeking behaviour than men.
Dr Akanbong said social expectations about masculinity often led men to postpone medical care until their condition had deteriorated.
“Men wait till it’s too late before they go to hospital,” he noted.
The 2025 estimates recorded the highest numbers of people living with HIV in Greater Accra, Ashanti and Eastern regions. The figures for those regions were 77,512, 68,354 and 42,704 respectively.
Western North, Northern, Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West, Oti, Savannah and North East regions each recorded fewer than 10,000 people living with HIV.
The Ghana AIDS Commission said the findings underline the need to strengthen HIV prevention, testing and treatment programmes, particularly for women. It also called for more men to use testing services so that infections can be identified earlier and treatment outcomes improved.
