In 2020, there were 7,699 children aged one to four who had HIV; in contrast, there were 443 new infections in children of the same age in 2021.
"This is bad since the moms of most of these kids gave it to them. They were mostly mother-to-child infections, which is something we have to prevent", Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, the National STI and AIDS Control Programme (NACP)'s programmes manager.
Therefore, he has recommended expecting mothers get tested for HIV at antenatal clinics (ANC) so that those who test positive may start treatment right away to stop the disease from spreading to their unborn children.
Dr Addo said the findings on mother-to-child transmission were further supported by other information NACP had been collecting, known as index testing.
After a mother has tested positive for the illness, index testing is when a partner and the children are tested as well.
In fact, we are finding that the children of the 14% of mothers who tested positive for the disease also tested positive, indicating that they went unnoticed.
We looked further and found that some of those mothers did not go to ANC and so they did not receive the treatment to prevent transmission to their children, the programs manager said.
In 2020, there were an estimated 22,754 teenagers (10–19) residing in the country who were infected with HIV; in 2021, there were 1,811 new infections among this same group and 718 deaths.
Within the first six months of 2021, a total of 23,495 youngsters (14 years and younger) tested positive for HIV.
Dr Addo said most of the new infections in children were from their mothers, adding that some mature minors (children who behaved like adults in terms of sexual behaviour) were also vulnerable to contracting the virus.
He listed some of the risk factors for HIV in teenagers, including peer pressure, early sexual activity, promiscuity, drug abuse (alcoholism), and ignorance.