Abstract & Overview
The prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Ghana is more than 15 times greater than the prevalence of HIV among adult males in the general population. The prevalence of HIV among MSM in Accra and Kumasi is 34.4% and 13.6% respectively. In 2012 the USAID Ghana SHARPER project — which supports HIV prevention and care among MSM — reached less than half of the 30000 estimated MSM at the project sites. In 2013 SHARPER tested the use of social media by MSM community liaison officers to identify unreached MSM networks. We reached 15440 unique MSM through social media and 12804 MSM through traditional outreach activities involving peer educators. The combined total of 28244 MSM represented 92% of the estimated number of MSM in the country. There was little overlap among the MSM reached by the two methods. The use of social media is a very important avenue for reaching MSM who are not reached by peer educators in Ghana. The method should be adopted as an integral outreach approach for HIVprevention interventions in the future.