Let's support people living with HIV/AIDS

Saturday, December 20, 2008 (The Mirror Pg 34)
From Rebecca Kwei, Koforidua
The Eastern Regional Coordinator of the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Sampson B. Ofori, has called on Ghanaians to care for and support People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) in order for them to live meaningful lives free from ignorance and prejudice.
He noted that PLWHAs were still stigmatised and discriminated against in the country because Ghanaians were still in a denial stage about HIV and AIDS.
Dr Ofori made the call at a day’s workshop to build the capacity of journalists to effectively report on HIV and Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Koforidua .
The workshop, which was on the theme ‘Lead, Empower, Deliver-Focus on the link between HIV and Malaria’, was organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) with support from the Indepth Network and the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA).
He said it’s been 20 years since the institution of World AIDS Day and that HIV and AIDS have been with us since 1981 but mankind is still battling with the disease.
He said the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on HIV and AIDS seeks to halt and reverse the spread of the epidemic by 2015 and that required far greater access to HIV prevention services and AIDS treatment, care and support than was currently available.
He noted that the current pace of most national responses was far too slow in reaching all in need of HIV information and services.
“The reality of the situation is that if we do not quickly deliver far more comprehensive prevention programmes and ensure universal access to treatment, care and support for people living with HIV or AIDS we will fail to meet the MDGs,” he said.
Giving statistics of the HIV and AIDS situation, he said globally 33.2 million people were living with the disease with 22.5 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
He said the national HIV prevalence rate was 1.9 per cent in 2007 while there is an estimated 264,481 PWLHAs comprising 110,666 males and 153,815 females.
According to Dr Ofori there were 110 facilities in the country with the capacity to provide ART as of June, this year and the NACP was working hard so that by 2010 every district hospital would be able to provide ART.
The acting New Juaben Municipal Director of Health Services, Mr Samuel Agyemang Boateng, who made a presentation on the "Malaria situation and drug use in Ghana", said malaria kills one million people each year, mainly children under five years while 80 per cent of malaria cases and 90 per cent of deaths were recorded in Africa.
He said in Ghana an average of 7,500 malaria cases were reported each day, and that it was the major cause of death, accounting for 40,000 deaths annually.
He said there was the need for action on the preventive and curative measures of malaria to reduce the incidence of malaria for Ghana to attain the MDGs.
Explaining further, he said one of the MDGs was to achieve universal primary education but malaria was a leading source of illnesses and absenteeism in school-age children and teachers.
Another MDT is to reduce child mortality but malaria was the leading cause of child mortality in endemic areas.
The participants later visited Matthew 25 House in Koforidua, a non-governmental organisation helping those infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
The facility provides counselling, skills training, awareness creation and community outreach for PLWHAs in communities and villages in and around Koforidua.
The Director of the house, Rev Fr Alex Bobby Benson, said they took care of about 185 men, women and children infected with or affected by AIDS.
As of now 78 PLWHAs are on ART and the house gives them financial support as well as food items.
Rev Fr Benson said the clients met in the house to interact, encourage one another and share experiences on how best to manage the disease in order to live longer.
He said the clients also engaged in income generating activities such as tie-dye, palm oil and funeral undertakers.
Rev Fr Benson expressed concern that while PLWHA are encouraged to engage in income generating activities, people are hesitant to patronise their goods when they get to know the source.
He appealed for more support for the house since the house's resources are limited.
During interaction with the PLWHAs they appealed to the government to further subsidise ART and also make available food packages for them since the drugs increased their appetite for food.