Vice-President calls for intensified HIV education (Spread)

(November 3, 2009)
THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, yesterday launched a month-long programme for the celebration of this year's World AIDS Day, with a call on Ghanaians to rededicate themselves to the fight against HIV and AIDS.
He said the fact that the national HIV prevalence rate had reduced from 1.9 per cent in 2008 to 1.7 per cent in 2009 did not call for complacency but rather continuous efforts to control the spread of the pandemic.
This year's World AIDS Day falls on Tuesday, December 1 and the day will be marked on the theme, "Universal Access and Human Rights".
The objective for the celebration, as spelt out by the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), is to enhance and advocate leadership and accountability in addressing the HIV epidemic in Ghana at all levels by engaging all stakeholders in decision making at the national, regional, district, community, family and individual levels.
As part of the celebration, there are plans to embark on a series of activities to encourage people to buy into the "Know Your HIV Status Campaign" being undertaken nation-wide by the Ministry of Health (MoH), while emphasising human rights which impact on HIV and AIDS.
In his address, Mr Mahama said, “Our commitment as individuals must start from our resolve not to get infected with HIV.”
He said the full extent of the pandemic was still unfolding, adding that studies had shown its capacity to destroy the gains made in development and its ability to send many countries backwards.
"Let us use this opportunity to remind ourselves that HIV and AIDS pose a major challenge to national development, principally because it is capable of cutting short the lives of our most productive citizens," he stressed
Mr Mahama hinted that the government was considering the possibility of reducing the size of the membership of the GAC from the present 46 to what he termed a manageable size.
In her welcoming address, the acting Director General of the GAC, Dr Angela El-Adas, said in 2006 Ghana pledged to provide universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010, adding that although some progress had been made, reaching the target remained a major challenge.
She, however, said since 1986 Ghanaians had demonstrated their commitment and undertaken a wide range of interventions to prevent the spread of the disease, including counselling, treatment, care and support for people living with HIV, supporting orphans and vulnerable children, promoting abstinence among the youth, promoting safe sex among adults and intensifying the administration of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for adults and children.
She said although significant achievements had been made in those areas, a tangible gap still remained with respect to the basic rights of those sub-populations which must be bridged.
For his part, the Programme Manager of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr Nii Akwei Addo, said although the national HIV prevalence was low, prevalence among same sex partners, commercial sex workers, prison inmates and prison officers was still high.
He explained that the national HIV prevalence of 1.7 per cent meant that out of every 100 people in Ghana, a little over two persons were HIV positive.
A human rights advocate, Nana Oye Lithur, said human rights, as expressed in national constitutions and international and regional conventions, were tools needed by the government and individuals to advance social justice among persons living with HIV/AIDS.
She said persons living with HIV/AIDS had the right to life, health, information, education and decision making which were guaranteed under Chapter Five of the Constitution.
Speaking on behalf of the United Nations agencies in Ghana, the UN Resident Co-ordinator, Mr Daouda Toure, said the UN agencies had incorporated human rights-based approach in all their plans and programmes.
He added that the world body was leading the process to assist all partner governments, ministries, departments and agencies to be trained in human rights-based approaches to ensure that human rights issues were addressed as cross- cutting issues at all levels.
The President of the Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Mr Clement Azigwe, said there were 30,000 people living with HIV but only about 4,200 had been registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which made it easier for them to access general heath services.
He said persons living with HIV faced challenges relating to human rights violations and, therefore, appealed to the GAC, the NACP, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, DANIDA, UNAIDS, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and USAID to assist them to address the problem.
The Chairman for the function, Naa Professor J.S. Nabila, who is also the President of the National House of Chiefs, as well as member of the Council of State, said the present situation where only less than 10 per cent of the population had gone for voluntary counselling and testing to know their HIV status was not good enough.