MOVES TO SUSTAIN HIV/AIDS AWARENESS — AIDS Commission, GJA launch project (SEPT 15, SPREAD)

THE Director-General of Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Angela El-Adas, has warned of possible increase in HIV and AIDS cases in the country because of pockets of high prevalence rate among certain sub-populations and geographical areas.
She said even though the current national adult prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS had dropped from 1.9 per cent in 2008 to 1.7 per cent in 2009, the HIV epidemic continued to challenge the socio-economic development of Ghana.
Dr EL-Adas, who launched Ghana AIDS Commission/Ghana Journalist Association (GJA ) project of “Using the media to create greater awareness on HIV and AIDS” in Accra yesterday, said the AIDS epidemic in the country was a generalised one with pockets of high prevalence rate.
She said those pockets had the capacity to flare and spread to the general population, if effective interventions were not put in place immediately to curb the spread.
She said currently about 240,000 Ghanaians were estimated to be living with the virus, with HIV prevalence among pregnant women rising to a peak of 3.6 per cent in 2003.
She, however, said Ghana Sentinel Survey Report for 2008 revealed that the number of cases among pregnant women declined to 2.2 per cent, with the major mode of transmission still being through heterosexual intercourse.
The Director-General said despite Ghana's prevalence rate being the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, the government would continue to give serious attention to the epidemic as a major public health challenge with multidimensional effects.
She noted that the disease contributed to household vulnerability and poverty and impeded the national development effort.
She said the AIDS Commission, in partnership with various stakeholders, had undertaken several strategic interventions in response to the epidemic.
Dr El-Adas explained that the strategic interventions included the creation of awareness, promoting abstinence among the youth, promoting safe sex, providing counselling and testing services, as well as offering care and support to people living with AIDS.
She said the AIDS Commission also provided support to orphans and vulnerable children, while intensifying anti-retroviral treatment for adults and children.
She said the critical issue of stigma and discrimination against people living with the disease had also been given a serious attention.
For his part, Mr Ransford Tetteh, the President of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), said through the project, journalists would be in a position to adequately inform the general public of the dangers of the HIV disease and impact of the disease on the economy.
He said indications were that social behavioural traits, especially among the youth, required that the media help to intensify the creation of a greater awareness, if the country was to make a constant and sustained progress in stemming the spread of the epidemic.
Mr Tetteh said apart from the training programme component of the project, it had an award scheme component to reward journalists who wrote and published exclusive stories on HIV and AIDS.