Enactment of law to prevent prosecute pastors of prayer camps

Koforidua, Oct 1, GNA - Parliament has been asked to enact a law to prevent pastors from keeping people with HIV/AIDS at prayer camps. Dr Sampson B. Ofori, Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), who made the suggestion, expressed worry that some people with the disease go to prayer camps instead of reporting to hospitals.

He said that some of them after taking Anti Retroviral Drugs and realising improvement in their health discontinue taking the drugs only to emerge at prayer camps.

Dr Ofori said that by the time they return to the hospital their health condition had gone worse.

He was speaking at a workshop organized by the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Council in collaboration with ADRA-Ghana, a non- governmental organization, on Stigma and Discrimination for stakeholders drawn from the region on Friday. Dr Ofori reiterated that there was no known cure for AIDS and it was only the Anti Retroviral Drugs that could manage the disease. He advised people with HIV/AIDS to report at hospitals to be put on the drugs.

Dr Ofori asked Ghanaians to go for Counseling and Testing to know their HIV/AIDS status. He advised rape victims, to go to hospital within 72 hours for drugs that would prevent them from acquiring HIV virus in case their perpetrators are carriers.

Mrs Phyllis A. Kudolo, Project Manager, ADRA, said the organization sought to reduce HIV infection among vulnerable groups and the general population.

She said the organization was also distribution condoms and undertaking Counseling and Testing for HIV/AIDS and fighting against stigmatization of people with the disease. Mrs Kudolo appealed for support for the project, especially the Peer facilitators of the organisation.