Kumasi Hosts HIV/AIDS Workshop

A day’s workshop to create awareness on the availability of drugs to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS virus from mothers to their babies, was held in Kumasi on Tuesday in the Ashanti Region.

It was organised by the Serwaa Ampem AIDS Foundation for Children in collaboration with the world Health organisation (WHO) for selected traditional and community leaders. The workshop sought to create a forum for the participants to discuss whether the new drug, which protects unborn babies against HIV infection should be administered to all pregnant women in spite of their HIV/AIDS status, or to only those who tested positive of the disease.

Speaking on ? Prevention Of Mother to Child HIV/AIDS Transmission ?, Dr. Thomas Agyarko-nti of the CIDA-HIV Project in Kumasi, said babies born to HIV/AIDS positive mothers had a 25 to 35 per cent chances of becoming infected. The drug, whcih had a 50 per cer effecacy, only protected the unborn baby in the wom and was administered once to the pregnant mother and once to the baby at birth, he said. The is followed up by regular subsequent visits to the clinic for the baby to be monitored.

Dr. Agyarko-Nti said the move was a means to protect babies rom the scourge of HIV/AIDS since it had been obseved that not all babies born to infected mothers got infected.

Nana adwoa adwapa, Wife of Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll, Asantehene, who is in-charge of the Serwaa ampem AIDS Foundation, said though research had indicated that prevalence in ghana was not as high as other countries in East Africa, Ghanaians needed to sit up to fight the menace before it reached uncontrollable proportions.