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The Ghana AIDS Commission has commended the Ghanaian media for their commitment towards the reduction of HIV/AIDS. The Director General of the Ghana Aids Commission (GAC), Dr Mrs Angela El-Adas commended the media at an HIV training workshop for editors of selected media housed from Eastern, Volta, Central and Western Regions in Accra on Thursday. She said Ghana had chalked major successes in HIV national response with consistent declining trends in general adult prevalence over the past ten years. Dr El-Adas said in spite of the massive expansion and tremendous results achieved through the implementation of the multifaceted national strategies, there still remain several challenges especially, in the area of evidence-informed policies and timely interventions. She said, it is for these reasons that the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (NSP 2011 �2015) uses solution and results-based approaches. The Director General said the focus of this strategy is to reduce by half the HIV infections by 2015 using 2010 as the base line with a virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV, as well as sustaining and scaling up the proportion of people living with HIV (PLHIV) who are on treatment . Giving the general overview of the national response to HIV and AIDS in Ghana, Dr Fred Nana Poku said, the national HIV prevalence stabilized at 1.5 per cent in 2010 and 2011 and decline further to 1.3 per cent last year. This relatively low prevalence translates into 235,982 Persons Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV) in Ghana, including 27,734 children who constitute 11.8 per cent of the total population of PLHIV, He said the percentage of HIV positive babies born in Ghana now stands at nine (9) per cent down from 30 per cent with a further push towards five (5) percent due to the Prevention-Of-Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) regime . Dr Poku said Ghana is among 22 countries in the world that recorded over 50 per cent decline in their HIV prevalence during the period under review. He said the 2012 sentinel surveillance report shows a reduction in national adult HIV prevalence from 3.6 in 2003 to 1.37 per cent in 2012, prevalence among sex workers had also reduced from 35 per cent in 2006 through 25 in 2009 to 11 per cent in 2012, while that of the youth aged 15 to 24 had declined appreciable from 1.7 per cent to 1.3 per cent : indicating that Ghana indeed was experiencing a reduction in new infections. The Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana Aids Commission, Ms Golda Asante said the national HIV policy seek to guide the implementation of the national strategic plan. She said under the national HIV policy, it is unacceptable for religious organizations to demand results of HIV test of would be couples before blessing their marriages. Ms Asante said the policy also proposes non-custodian sentence for suspect known to be living with HIV.