Ghana needs home grown initiatives to tackle HIV – NGO

A stakeholders’ meeting on HIV in the Volta Region Wednesday called for action to stop advertisements on radio stations claiming cure for the virus.

The meeting described such advertisements and claims as counter- productive to efforts at tackling the virus through interventions including the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) for those who have tested positive.

The meeting was organized by Future Generations International (FUGI), a non-governmental organisation, under the auspices of the USAID/Ghana, “Strengthen HIV/AIDS Partnership with Evidence Based Results (SHARPER) Project.”

It was to assess the progress and challenges at the end of the second phase of the project and share ideas towards the future.

The project seeks to build the capacity of Most-at-Risk Populations, encourage consistent use of condoms and strict adherence to the ART treatment regime.

The meeting, which comprised of HIV Peer Educators, Models of Hope (MOHOPE), both made up of HIV positive persons educators, HIV focal persons, and health workers and administrators, observed that many HIV positive persons who were on ART often abandoned their treatment on hearing of such claims.

Some of such victims often died while others returned to the hospitals with serious complications.

The meeting therefore called on the Food and Drugs Board to pursue those who make such claims and subject their claims to scientific proof and sanction them appropriately.

They also called on District Assemblies to make bye-laws to compel owners of radio stations who lend their media to peddling such claims for financial gain to demand scientific proof of the efficacy of such concoctions to determine their suitability for public information.

The meeting said existing laws are strong enough to deal with the problem except that institutions which must enforce them were weak or reluctant to do so.

Source: GNA